D Grayman: The devil's joker
by Trailblazer2500
Summary: Everything used to be so black and white to Allen, but what about the third player in this war? He seems very gray,and he will stop at nothing to get his way,also whats his connection to Allen? follows main story before deviating at a point
1. Prologue: A Strange Savior

**Right, the very first chapter of my very first piece of work (if you're wondering about my other piece…read the introduction.) Gosh it took me ages to get to even doing this.**

**I've actually been thinking about this for years now, but somehow never got around to doing it.**

**But I think I'll stop stalling now and start writing**

**Prologue: A Strange Savior**

_A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.  
>-Amelia Earhart<em>

'_Please, promise me that you will keep him safe, that you will protect him…please…' The woman sobbed as she felt her life slowly slipping away from her. Beside her, a young man held her hand to comfort her as tears poured from eyes and wet her own blood soaked shirt._

'_I promise… I promise with all my heart that I will protect this child of yours, and that he shall grow up to be respected and honored amongst his peers and his fellow men.' The man said with a hint of sadness in his voice._

'_Thank you…' The woman answered softly as she felt herself finally go._

'…_Sleep now girl, your suffering is at an end.' The man said after a pause as he closed her eyes for her. He then stood up, and glanced at the baby that he held in the crook of his arm, he eyed the red, scaly left arm of the babe and smirked._

'_For you though, dear child, _your _suffering is just beginning, you will encounter great trials and tribulations throughout your entire life, men will laugh at you, children will mock you, death itself will come for you, but if you can persevere and prevail through all of these, you will emerge as one they will revere and be in awe of, for them, you will be their equivalent…of god.'_

_He paused before continuing, 'That is of course, unless you decide otherwise…Allen.'_

Allen woke up with a start at the end of the dream, he shielded his eyes from the sunlight that came in through his window, 'The same dream again, who is this guy anyway? And is that my _birth _mother I keep seeing?' He wondered.

'_No.' _He muttered angrily, 'my parents abandoned me because of this arm of mine, my only parent is Mana.' He felt something bump his head and looked up at his, _correction,_ his _master's _golem, Timcanpy.

He sighed and stared out of the window of the room in which he had taken for the night in the nearby inn, he was nearly at his destination, the Black order where he be inducted as an exorcist, an apostle of god.

As he packed up his belongings in his suitcase and prepared to go downstairs, he couldn't stop thinking about the dark figure in his dreams and what he had said, he had had the same dream several times already throughout his life so far, but recently they were coming to him with increasing intensity and vividness.

He could now even recall very well what the man in his dream looked like, he was very tall, wore a black zip coat with a hood, and most remarkably, had a pair of crimson red eyes, and spoke with a slight rasping tone in his voice.

But he pushed all of those thoughts to the back of his head as he prepared to go continue his journey to the black order, and fulfill his promise to Mana to keep walking.

As he walked out of the inn and began a slow walk to the train, he failed to notice that the same person from his dream was sitting on top of the roof of a nearby apartment and was gazing down at him. The stranger smirked on seeing the boy before getting up and walking off.

**Well…I think that was a little lame, never mind though, still a long way to the finishing of this story.**

**I'm not going to ask for reviews, since I feel that I really should not be bothering, but it would still be nice to see what you think of the story even though this is only the first chapter.**

**So, I'll see you again next time! :)**


	2. Chapter 1: The Watcher

**Hmm…what did you guys think of the first chapter eh? Well this is the second chapter, from this chapter onwards; it will follow the anime (mostly) until the end of season 2 in which case it will start following the manga for a bit before it breaks off into its own story.**

**Oh and this chapter is pretty much ripped from the anime/manga word for word, action by action, scene by scene.**

**Well without further ado…shall we begin?**

**Oh right I forgot to add this, I don't own this, never will, though you probably knew that, unless this is your first time reading fan fiction, which it likely isn't.**

**Chapter 1: The Watcher**

'_A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.'  
>- Chinese Proverb (specifically? Lao Tzu)<em>

'W-Why did they make that thing stand here?' Allen wondered tiredly as he paused in his scaling of the mountain on top of which the headquarters of the black order stood. All around him, little black bat-like things floated all around him.

'Just a bit more…' Allen puffed as he gripped the ledge at the top of the mountain and pulled himself up.

'I finally made it.' He gasped as he fell down on his butt to rest while taking in the sight of the towering structure that was in front of him.

'The exorcist main headquarters, the black priests.' Allen stared in wonder at the majestic tower before him.

'Probably…' He added.

'I've heard about this place before but…' Allen remarked to himself, 'How should I put it? It has a strange atmosphere…' He muttered surveying the area around him, there was a single straight path that led up to a gate in the distance; the path was flanked on both sides by a forest of trees.

'This is the place right Timcanpy?' Allen said to his yellow flying companion.

'Anyway shall we check it out?' He said to no one in particular.

Unbeknownst to Allen, one of the bat-like thingies flew out of its group and focused it's "eye" intensely on the teenager as he walked towards the entrance of the order. On the other side of the "eye", a group of people watched him intently as he made his way towards the entrance. The group conversed amongst each other for a moment, all wondering who the boy was until one of them, evidently the leader, walked up to the front of the group.

'What's with that kid?' He asked in an annoyed tone

'We can't let outsiders come here,' he continued, 'why didn't anyone stop him?' He said questioningly.

'Ah, Supervisor Komui…' the golden haired man began, 'that's because he seems different from a normal outsider.' He answered, in response; Komui lowered his head in order to have a better look at the "outsider".

'Look at this brother,' a green haired girl who had been staring closely at the screen said, 'This kid…he seems to have general cross' golem with him.'

'It's true…' the golden haired man said.

By this time though, Allen had already walked all the way up to the front of the gate.

'Excuse me!' He yelled.

'I was told to come here by Cross Marian, I'm Allen Walker, and I have some matters to discuss with you!' He continued.

'An acquaintance of the general?' One of the men with thick glasses remarked.

'Is that person still alive?' Another with bandages wrapped around his head wondered.

'Hmm…he said he was referred,' the golden haired one said, 'Supervisor, did you hear anything about this?' He asked Komui.

Komui simple sipped his coffee and replied, 'No.'

'Hmm…' the golden haired man thought for a moment before answering the boy standing at the gate.

'The gatekeeper will examine you.' He said through a microphone to the boy.

Allen looked around for a moment, 'gatekeeper?' he wondered, it was then that he noticed a gigantic humanoid face on the wall of the gate.

He turned to it and smiled, 'Hi there' he said.

All of a sudden, the face came alive! It stretched itself down from the wall on which it hung and was in Allen's face in the blink of an eye, stunning Allen on the spot.

'X-ray examination!' It shouted, 'Checking if it's an Akuma or human.'

It then shone down beams from its eyes onto Allen that started circling around him; Allen jumped when the beams shone down but otherwise, remained still.

All of a sudden, the gatekeeper jumped backwards with a cry of terror, making everyone jump.

'HE'S OUTTA HERE!' The gatekeeper screamed as loudly as he could.

'THIS GUY IS A BUG; THE PENTACLE ON HIS FOREHEAD IS CURSED, OUT, OUT!' It continued screaming.

Allen could only stand and stare in shock as the people watching him went into a panic.

'Hey, the exorcists…' The golden haired man said.

'Kanda is already here' the girl exclaimed.

Outside, a man with long black hair tied into a ponytail jumped of part of the tower and landed on top of the gate, he glared down at Allen who stared back at him.

'You sure have courage, coming here alone…' The man said angrily.

'Oh crap, he's gonna kill me,' Allen thought. 'W-wait! You must have me mistaken for someone…'

He didn't get to finish because in the blink of an eye, the man descended swiftly while slashing his katana downwards. Allen's instincts kicked in and he jumped back while activating his arm to block the blow. Allen was surprised when he felt hurt from the attack; he was even more surprised to see that it damaged his arm.

'You…what's with that arm?' The man inquired while fingering his own blade.

'It's an anti-akuma weapon,' Allen explained, 'I'm an exorcist.'

At this, the man turned and railed at the gatekeeper, who meekly explained that he couldn't see the insides of Allen and therefore could not judge him properly.

'Well I guess if I check your insides we will know for sure.' The man hissed as he prepared to attack again.

'WAIT! STOP! YOU SHOULD'VE GOTTEN A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION FROM MASTER CROSS!' Allen screamed in fright just before the blade penetrated his face, only this time, it stopped just millimeters from it.

'A letter of recommendation…from the general?' The man asked

'Y-yes.' Allen stuttered out in shock, 'addressed to someone named Komui.'

At this, Komui ordered someone to search the clutter that was his desk for the letter, after finding it; he then ordered Reever, the golden haired man to stop Kanda and also asked his sister, Lenalee to help him set up.

Despite reassurances from Komui, Kanda continued threatening Allen until Lenalee personally appeared and hit him with a clipboard before inviting Allen into the castle.

Throughout the whole commotion of the entry, a stranger dressed in a black long-sleeved long coat watched the entire affair whilst hidden amongst the trees.

'So…' He thought quietly to himself, 'You've taken your first step towards your destiny, Allen Walker,' he smirked, 'We will see each other soon, for now, rest, it has been a hectic night for you, I will continue monitoring you…well, until we meet in person.' The stranger laughed quietly before disappearing into the darkness.

**Hmm…wonder who that guy is? Oh well guess you'll have to read on to find out.**

**Once again I will not ask that you **_**must**_** review it, but it would be nice to know what you think.**


	3. Chapter 2: Strangers in the dawn

**Second chapter (I don't count the prologue) of this fan fiction, I hope you enjoyed it, even if it was ripped from the anime/manga.**

**I don't…oh whatever you already know that I don't own this.**

**Let's start shall we? I'm sure most of you don't read the author's commants at the start anyway…**

**Chapter 2: Strangers in the night**

_I do desire we may be better strangers.  
>-William Shakespeare<em>

Allen rested his head on his knees as he listened to the lullaby that was being sung by Lala to Guzo, it was very enchanting he thought. Kanda had wanted to simply cut her open to get at the innocence in her body, but Allen had prevented him from doing so in order to let Lala have a chance to burn herself out singing to Guzo. As a result, Kanda went to a nearby hospital to spend a few days recovering due to the wounds he had incurred battling the akuma; Allen meanwhile, was left to guard the innocence that had been the source of Lala's longevity.

It was a very sad story, Allen thought, Lala, the doll had been abandoned by her creators and had killed every human she came into contact with out of self-defense. She had prepared to do the same to Guzo until he asked her to sing for him since no one else had ever done that for him, they had lived together like that for the past several decades until they had been found by both the order as well as by akuma, in the ensuing battle, Guzo was fatally wounded even though the akuma was eventually destroyed by Allen who had somehow evolved his innocence during battle into a new weapon.

'What are you sleeping for? Stay on guard!' Kanda chastised Allen angrily.

Surprised to see his fellow exorcist here, Allen replied, 'Huh? What's a person who's supposed to take months to recover doing here?'

'I got better.' Kanda replied.

'No way…'

'Shut up.'

'I got a message from Komui, he says I'm going ahead with my next mission, you deliver the innocence back to headquarters.'

'Understood.' Allen muttered.

Kanda stared at Allen for a moment before remarking, 'If it's hard to bear, then stop the doll, it isn't Lala anymore right?'

'But it's their promise; the only one who can break her is Guzo.' Allen replied.

'You're naïve, we're destroyers not saviors.' Kanda said.

Allen paused for a moment before replying, 'I know that.'

All of a sudden though, the singing simply…stopped. Allen rushed into the building where Lala had been left with Guzo, they found her kneeling by Guzo's body with her mouth wide open, but no sound was coming out from her mouth, she was completely still.

Allen knelt by her side, and then all off a sudden, Lala spoke, 'Thank you for letting me sing until I break, the promise has been fulfilled.' And with that she fell into Allen's arms, as lifeless as a doll.

Allen began weeping and sobbing uncontrollably before a voice rang out, 'Hey, what's wrong?' Kanda asked from the doorway of the building.

'Kanda, although what you say is true, I want to become a destroyer who can save.' He said with a smile.

High above him, standing on top of the ruined building, unnoticed by all, the stranger knelt stood silently watching Allen weep over the doll, his dark outfit ensured that he was totally invisible against the dark sky, however, the sun was beginning to rise, it's first rays peeking out over the ruins and highlighting the stranger's shadow onto the floor of the bottom of the building.

Allen, while trying to rub away his tears failed to notice the shadow against the side of the building in front of him. Kanda however, didn't.

'Hey, there's someone standing above you.' He said to Allen while following the shadow till it ended at the top of the building, he could barely make out a figure standing upright and staring at Allen, Allen looked up and he too, saw the person standing high above them.

'Ouch, looks like I've been spotted, hmm…I guess this is goodbye for now Allen Walker, many happy returns.' The stranger grinned as he walked away from the edge and disappeared.

'Who was that?' Allen asked.

'The hell if I know.' Kanda irritatingly replied.

Allen too wondered about whom it had been that was watching them, he had disappeared fairly quickly upon learning that he was spotted. Somehow, he couldn't shake the feeling that he would be seeing more of that same person in the not-too-distant-future.

'I wonder who he is, and what he wants, maybe it was just some passers-by? I don't know.' Allen thought.

**So that's the end of the second chapter folks, I still cling to the hope that you enjoyed it.**

**Also, a note, you'll have noticed that I copy pasted the thing straight from the anime/manga itself, so you can actually just skip to the bottom if you wanna know what happens at the end since that is where my OC will show up most of the time.**

**Also, for simplicity, up until he reveals himself, I shall refer to him as 'the Stranger'.**

**Reviews are welcomed, but I'm not saying you **_**absolutely have to**_**, just that it would be real nice of you.**


	4. Chapter 3: The Graveyard Shift

**Is this the fifth chapter already? Hmm…time flies freakishly fast when you're doing what you like the most. I like writing, putting thoughts on paper (or Microsoft word in this case) really helps me relax and calm down.**

**But you're not interested in all that crap are you? I didn't think so. I'm sure you're all more interested in finding out who the Stranger is right?**

**Well, I think maybe, I'll see if I can get him to talk in the next chapter kay? ;)**

**Hmm…well since you seem interested enough, I'll stop talking, you start reading, or was that writing? I dunno…**

**I don't own D. Gra- oh forget it. Just know that Hoshino Katsura does and your fine.**

**Chapter 3: The Graveyard Shift**

_Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.__  
>-Confucius<em>

'I have plenty of Akuma rotting around here.' The Earl said with glee whilst seated atop 'Leo'.

'Go! Akuma cannon' The Earl shouted. In response to the order given, one of the akuma opened fire on Allen; Allen quickly threw Jean to the side whilst holding up his left arm to block the shots and took a direct hit without dodging. Stunned by this, Jean shouted Allen's name, fearing he had been badly wounded.

'Will you please die already?' The earl said as the akuma now turned its guns upon Jean. Seeing this Lenalee dashed forward and activated her innocence, she jumped forward, snatched Jean in her arms and jumped backwards just before the shot contacted.

Allen recovered quickly from the attack, and was stunned to find out that Lenanlee was an exorcist as well. Lenalee deposited Jean right beside the finder Toma, told him to take care of the boy before racing back to do battle with the akuma.

Even Jean was taken by surprise when Lenalee revealed herself to be an exorcist; Toma explained to him the details of the innocence called 'Dark boots'. It gave the girl the ability of flight when activated, and harnessed the destructive power of falling steel and iron.

'Oh! One more person has appeared,' The Earl exclaimed, 'but that's ok!' He continued, and targeted Lenalee with the akumas.

'I'll kill you soon okay?' He laughed. Lenalee paid no heed to his words as she jumped up and around the battlefield, dodging every single shot the akumas fired at her.

Seeing this, Allen wasted no time in rejoining the fight, and together the two took on the horde of akumas, destroying one after another in quick succession.

'You've become a nuisance, now hurry up and disappear!' The earl said, now becoming quite irritated at the two exorcists. At his command, a row of akuma opened up with a barrage of cannon fire, Lenalee dodged this though, but she failed to take into account another akuma that was behind her got hit with friendly fire, it exploded, throwing her to a nearby building and onto a roof.

Allen quickly rushed to her side to check if she was alright. She was slightly scratched and bruised by the fall, but otherwise unhurt.

'You two can stay right there and die!' The earl shouted at them as another volley was fired by the akuma at them. The two got away quickly, leaving the building to take the full brunt of the attack, collapsing as a result. Toma quickly covered Jean with his body in order to protect him from falling debris.

'If we don't hurry up and destroy the akuma, the whole town will be in trouble!' He spoke quietly to himself. He didn't notice that Jean had heard him though.

'Destroy?' Jean thought in fright. He flashed back to all the memories he had of his friend Leo, who was now one of the akuma firing at the exorcists, he mused on the thought that Leo would have known that humanity could not fail in destroying the akuma, that he was the who alerted him of the Earl's threat, that Leo would have known accordingly that the Earl was not a nice person. Jean started crying, wondering if the death of Leo's mother filled him with darkness.

Meanwhile, the battle raged in front of him and Toma, more akuma fell despite the hailstorm of fire that they were putting into the air. Finally Jean got up and screamed to Allen, 'Destroy him Allen! Lay Leo to rest!' He screamed at the top of his voice.

Allen acknowledged, 'With this one blow…I'll end everything!' He said angrily as he raised his claw upwards.

'Bring salvation…to the soul of this akuma!' Allen shouted as he leapt upwards, 'Cross! Grave!' he continued and threw a large glowing ball of energy at the akuma. Upon contact with the akuma, the white ball dispersed and turned into large white crosses on the akuma, causing the entire bunch to explode into smoke and flames.

The other three were stunned by this display of power, meanwhile though,

'This isn't good, akuma of this level are no match for you!' Lero shouted as the Earl hung onto him and floated about.

'Hmph, big deal.' He jeered.

'I can simply call up a whole lot more of higher levels to deal with you exor-'He cut himself off when he spied a dark figure crouching atop the tower of the church.

The group were surprised to see the earl stop talking, but then he continued, 'Ah well, it seems that that's my cue to leave, I guess I have no choice.' Then he looked directly at Allen. 'We shall meet again.'

'Earl!' Allen shouted heatedly.

'However, you have only seen the book's prologue. Akuma of this world will continue to evolve; from here the real drama begins.'

The Earl finished very melodramatic and villainous monologue about destroying the world and that no one, not even 'he' would have the power to stop him.

As everyone heaved a sigh of relief, Allen wondered about the 'he' that the earl had been talking about even as fell down to rest and comfort Jean.

'He…who is "he", and what does he have to do with this war?' Allen wondered, then something made him turn his head around and he saw the same figure that he saw at Matel. And then he realized that it the figure that made the earl stop talking.

He quickly pushed of Jean and stood up to get a better look at the figure, but he had already disappeared.

'Is something wrong?' Lenalee inquired while trying to look at what Allen was looking at.

Surprised to see her, Allen simply smiled and said, 'Yeah…I'm just… thinking about…' He trailed off.

'About what?' Lenalee asked.

'Nothing, it's nothing.' Allen replied.

'Hmm…almost had the Earl.' The stranger thought to himself, 'But I can't reveal myself yet, not yet, it's not the right time yet.' Allen almost got a good look at him too. 'I think I'll let him stew in his thoughts for now, spooking him twice should be enough to do just that.' The stranger chuckled to himself, 'Ah Allen, there are so many things you don't know, the hidden side of this war… your origin…, but it shall all be revealed…in due time of course.' The stranger thought as he walked off.

**Oh man, what a stupidly long chapter , I'm really trying to avoid long chapters cuz as I said, I like short and sweet more than long winded stuff. (I get bored very long chapters of fanfiction)**

**In that case though, if you already know how the whole thing goes, then just skip to the interesting bits at the end.**

**Now someone said that I should try googling 'How to write a novel', Thanks for the tip, but no thanks, I'm writing this my way, even if it kills me, no offense though .**

**Once again, reviews not necessary but appreciated since I think that anyone who deliberately wants them for the sake of them are the same as those people who want to get as many likes as possible on Faceter, or was that twitbook? Oh Facebook sorry. (would be nice to know how to improve though.)**


	5. Chapter 4: Face to Face

**Hmm…I do believe that I have gotten lost after just one week of posting stuff up. This now follows both the manga and the anime depending on which is available for me to use.**

**Honestly to you guys? I won't be able to keep the every weekend update thing, I have stupid exams coming up and this may be the last chapter I make for the next two months until the start of June, I'm sorry but it seems I picked a **_**really **_**bad year to start picking up writing as a hobby since I will have no time for it.**

**Also, I seem to notice that a lot of people give up reading after the first chapter, guess they don't like a story with Mary sues in it…oh well nothing I can do about that.**

**But since I suppose this might very well be farewell for some time, less talking, more writing, or was that...?**

**I don't own D. gray-man blah blah blah.**

**Chapter 4: Face to face**

_The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing._  
><em>-Socrates<em>

The finder sighed as he waited outside the 'rewinding town' for the two exorcists to complete their mission and find out just what the hell was going on in the town, as he began to doze off, he spied the outline of a person walking towards the entrance of the town, the finder quickly sat upright to get a better look at the person and was stunned by what he saw.

The individual that he was staring at was a very tall person with a slightly lanky frame, he wore a black unzipped long coat that reached down to the back of his shin, the hood of the coat obscured most of the upper part of his face which left the finder looking at a sharp nose and a stern mouth, underneath the coat he wore a black collarless shirt with a matching pair of dark jeans with the ends tucked into what looked like military boots, he had a very stiff and long stride with the knees bending very little as his legs moved, but all these paled in comparison to what the finder was most astonished about.

Strapped to the person's back by what looked like strands of fabric that immerged from the coat itself, was an _immense_ curved, single edged sword, it looked like an oversized katana and was possibly as long as the person was tall, it's hilt jutted out over his left shoulder and the blade stretched all the way down to the back of his knee.

The stranger however, seemed unconcerned by the astonished stare he was getting from the finder and only spared him a passing glance; instead, he seemed to be more concerned with his apparent target, the entrance to the town.

Recovering from his shock, the finder immediately called out to him, 'Excuse me sir!' He shouted. The stranger completely ignored him and simply continued walking.

The finder continued, 'Sorry but the…ah… you can't go into the town.' He said trying to illicit a response from the stranger.

The stranger continued to advance with single-minded determination towards the town, he now just a couple of steps away from the entrance.

This time, the finder got up and moved towards him, 'I'm really sorry sir, but you can't enter the town.' He said as he moved to grab a hold of the stranger, to his shock however, the stranger walked on, and on, and through the barrier, disappearing in a flash of bright red light as he disappeared into the town.

The finder was stunned by this, he had only observed the exorcists enter the town but not another human being, and the report had _explicitly _said that no other human had been able to enter the town, 'What…was that? Was I dreaming?' The finder wondered.

_**On the other side…**_

The stranger stepped out into the town in a flash of red light, 'So this is the rewinding town…,' He thought, '_Marvelous, _best get moving shall we? After all, I don't think I want to be late to see my charge in action, and possibly get his ass whooped if a Noah appears…' with that thought, and a smirk, the stranger walked off to find his charge, guided by his instincts and his sight.

_**Elsewhere, in Miranda's apartment…**_

'Even though you're the same as other humans, why…?' Allen whispered.

'The same?' Road said with a malicious grin on her face, 'Not quite.' She finished and so saying grabbed Allen's left arm and slashed herself across the face with it. Allen was stunned by what she did but Road quickly grabbed him by the collar and remarked, 'We are the supermen, who inherited the genes of Noah, mankind's oldest apostle.'

'We're different from you lowlifes.' She sneered and out of the blue, grabbed a candle and stabbed it through Allen's left eye. Allen screamed a ghastly scream while Road sadistically licked the tip of the candle and laughed while Miranda cringed and looked away at the unbearable sight as Allen clutched his eye socket.

'I don't think anything of killing these insignificant humans. I just _hate_ this world full of these worthless beings. You should all just die and go away.' Road said in a sing-song voice.

'You know god…he wishes for this world to come to an end. That's why he gave rewarded the Millennium Earl and us with these Akuma.' She remarked while biting her sleeve.

'That isn't god's will.' Allen said angrily while standing up, 'It's the devil's!' He said as he changed his left arm into a cannon.

'Who cares?' Road shrugged, 'Either way is fine.' She said as Allen launched his attack against her and the akuma.

_**Outside…**_

The stranger paused at the doorstep of Miranda's apartment. He looked at the building curiously, to any normal person walking along the street, it looked the same as it had been in the morning, yet all of his senses told him that this was where he would find his objective, and he could almost feel the presence of his charge, still, there was at least one foolproof method of identification before he kicked down the door.

His eyes changed, from the normal-albeit crimson red-eyes of a human, in a split second the entirety of his eyes had gone a much lighter shade of red, and his pupils had narrowed into slits. Normally, his perception of the human world was the same as that of any other human, colours and all, however, with this change; he now saw the world differently, instead of the bright colours that characterized the human sight, his vision now shifted into a muted, dull brownish-red, bright green arcs of light danced all around as the humans beings walking around him turned into dark shades of gray, black and the occasional silvery-white. However what stood out amongst all else in this view of the world was the dark mass he could see swirling in the apartment along with three very faint balls of green.

The stranger smirked as his eyes returned to normal as did his vision, he had only needed it for a split second identification that he needed.

'So it seems like this is the place indeed…' He thought, 'Oh well, let's get started shall we?' He grinned as he opened the door and stepped into the apartment.

Inside the apartment, everything still seemed as normal as…well it wasn't as though a brawl or anything had happened, the stranger casually walked up the stairs leading to where he had seen the dark mass. When he approached the door, he pressed his ear against it; nothing, so he tried the door handle, wouldn't even budge, and then he tried forcing it open, still nothing.

The stranger hissed through gritted teeth, he did not like being denied his objective, and he had a promise to keep. Then he looked down at the crack between the floor and then the door and noticed some dark substance seeping out and dissipating into the air.

He smiled.

'Looks like one of Road's pocket dimensions, let's see if I can get her attention.' The stranger smiled to himself as he cracked his left fist, drew it back, and slammed it against the door.

_**Inside the room…**_

Allen had just fended off a wave of candles from hitting Miranda and lay still against the woman as she held Allen. Road inquired as to what she would do now when cornered and helpless when the stranger sent his fist straight at the door.

The force of the impact was strong enough to generate a shudder that ran the length of the entire room.

The sudden tremble was felt by everyone in the room, even Road seemed somewhat confused by this.

'Hey you.' She said pointing at one of the akuma, 'Go and check what happened.' She ordered bluntly, then grinned maliciously, 'and make whoever did that die as _painfully _as possible for disrupting my playtime.'

'Yes Ms Road.' The akuma with icey/firey breath complied and went to check the door and disappeared out of the dimension.

_**Outside the room…**_

'Oh yyyyeeeeessssss!' The akuma giggled to itself as it exited the dimension, 'The human's death will be very unpleasant _indeed_' he cackled manically as he exited the pocket dimension…

And came face to face with the stranger.

Before the akuma could do anything, the stranger lifted his head to look at it.

'Is Ms Road in?' He asked with a smile and his hands held behind his back, 'I'd like to have a word with her if you don't mind.'

'You-you DARE to talk to me with that grin on your _FACE_? Why you- I swear you'll be begging for death when I'm done with you!' the akuma screamed as he moved to attack the stranger.

'_ICE…FIRE!'_ The akuma shouted and let loose a stream of ice from his mouth which engulfed the corridor and froze the stranger's feet in place.

'Now…this is an inconvenience…' The stranger remarked quietly to himself before turning to the akuma.

'Since soft words and the olive branch do _not_ seem to work here…' He said between gritted teeth.

He looked straight at the akuma and grinned evilly, 'I guess we'll have to solve this the old-fashioned way.' He said as he cracked his knuckles, bared his teeth in a wide grin, and sent his fist at the akuma.

_**Inside the room…**_

'You know what I think I'll do with whosoever is outside?' Road smiled sadistically to a curled up Allen and Miranda.

'I'll torture him until he screams for mercy and listen to him die pain-' Road was interrupted by a crash, and the akuma who she had sent out was flung across the room and exploded into smoke.

'What the…?' She said with shock.

'Who'd you say you'd be torturing again?' The stranger smirked as he stepped into the dimension.

Road was stunned to see the new arrival, even more stunned was Allen who had gathered the strength to look up and see who it was who had entered.

'You…' He barely managed a whisper.

'Oh it's _you.' _Road said in an irritated voice, 'What are you doing here? You don't work for our god, or _their _god, in fact if memory serves me right, you don't serve anyone save yourself.'

'Ah ah _ah_, that's where you're wrong.' The stranger remarked while shaking his finger at Road.

'I serve the opposite of your _gods_, even if I hate them to the ends of the earth.' He said with a shrug.

'Well Mr. person-who-serves-the-opposite-of-god.' Road said, 'Let's see if you'll save these "apostles" of god.' And prepared to hurl a second barrage of candles at the defenseless Allen and Miranda.

However, this time though, the barrage destroyed itself attempting to pierce a barrier which had inexplicably appeared surrounding Allen and Miranda.

Miranda reflected on how she had kept trying despite constantly failing, and when she looked at the clock, she was stunned to see it apparently creating some kind of dome encircling the both of them; she was even more surprised when she saw smaller round disks with clock hands on them emerging from her wounds.

Allen, who was little more than a bloody mess, suddenly sat up and noticed that he looked as good as new, as if none of what had happened a scant few minutes earlier had mattered.

'That's the spirit.' The stranger thought as he watched the spectacle before him, 'The innocence is responding to her thoughts, to her wishes…now _that's _powerful stuff.'

He watched the akuma launch futile attacks against the large dome in an attempt to penetrate it. Suddenly though, a massive claw burst out from the dome and grabbed the chair which Lenalee had been bound to, Road leapt from the chair as it was pulled into the dome by the claw.

Despite Lenalee's confusion as to the circumstances regarding what happened, after a brief explanation by Allen she launched an attack from within the dome that was able to obscure the akuma's vision long enough for Allen to launch a surprise attack on the akuma and destroy one with a shot from his arm cannon.

The two exorcists then faced Road down, who commented on how they had completely recovered due to Miranda's being compatible with the innocence after all, something Road had not expected.

She then remarked on how she had already heard of him from the Earl, and already knew quite a bit about his motivations for the war. Then…

'Hey you.' She called to the last akuma.

'Yes?'

'Self-destruct.' She ordered.

The akuma pleaded with her saying it had taken him this long to reach level two even as she started counting down from ten.

'Hey! What are you up to?' Allen asked, at which point Road told him that if an akuma is destroyed by any other force other than innocence, the soul within will be destroyed.

'And then you can't save it right?' She taunted him.

Stunned by this, Allen raced with all his strength at the Akuma before it could destroy itself.

'STOP!' He screamed.

'Two.' Road said

'Allen no! You won't make it!' Lenalee shouted.

Allen however, was all but deaf to Lenalee's cry and continued racing towards the akuma as Road counted one.

Right at this point, Allen felt something slam into him and push him backwards as the akuma exploded.

Allen was stunned to see the soul cry out for help and disappear into nothing. He screamed at Lenalee for stopping him, Lenalee for her part, slapped him hard and shouted at him that the two were friends.

Road however was plainly amused by the sight.

'Ah…that was more fun than I expected it to be, well let's call it quits for now.' She said as she summoned up a large door from the ground and prepared to step through it, she stopped when she felt Allen place his arm against her head, she commented on how she knew that Allen would not shoot due to him being too kind before stepping through the door and bidding farewell.

All of a sudden though, everything started to fall apart, Allen jumped forward with a cry in an attempt to reach both Lenalee and Miranda but found himself falling through nothing.

It ended as quickly as it began, Allen found himself back in the apartment staring at a wall with the words 'Fuck you Exorcist' scribbled in blood.

As he was wondering what had happened, Lenalee shouted that there was something wrong with Miranda.

It turned out the activation of the innocence had stressed Miranda to breaking point, even though the deactivation would cause all three to have their injuries returned, Allen and Lenalee convinced her to stop…

A clock chimed midnight in the streets of the town, as a store manager prepared to close down, Miranda appeared suddenly with blood all over her hands and screamed for him to call a doctor.

_**Back in the apartment…**_

Allen was losing consciousness fast when the stranger stepped from the shadows and knelt on one knee to check his wounds, 'hmm…if those idiots at the order are half as smart as they say they are, he _should_ make a full recovery.' He was startled when Allen moved his head ever so slightly.

'Who…?' Allen barely whispered.

'Shh, rest now Allen,' the stranger whispered in return, 'you look like you need it.' He said before slipping an envelope into Allen's coat and disappearing into the night.

...

Allen woke up to the voice of Komui talking to somebody else, when he fully opened he eyes, he got a shock to see Komui wielding a HUGE drill who put it aside and explained what had happened after. An exorcist standing at the door with orange hair and an eyepatch, introduced himself as Lavi as Komui got up to leave, he passed Allen a message from Miranda along with an unmarked envelope that had been found in his coat. Allen listened to Miranda's message before fingering the envelope gingerly.

'Whatcha got there Allen?' Lavi chirped on seeing the envelope.

'I dunno…' Allen remarked, he didn't remember clearly what the stranger had said but remembered asking him who he was before passing out.

'Well open it then.' Lavi said.

Allen did as he said, inside was a written message that read:

'Dear Allen Walker, I know by now you must be really wracking your brains over who was it that keeps appearing and disappearing out of sight wherever you go, well patience Allen… all will be told…in due time of course.'

**The Longest chapter I've written so far, almost 3000 words in total, that's the number 3 with 3 zeros.**

**And that's terrible.**

**Why? I hate when a chapter gets as long as this since-for me at least-it has a tendency to get boring since a start skip paragraphs and stuff.**

**Well, I might have to stop for a while cuz as I said, exams and crap are coming up and I can't be writing/typing all the time, so sporadic updates, possible hiatus.**

**Oh and 'Nicky' has told me twice now that I need to improve my writing, erm…no offense intended but do be a bit more specific when you say 'write better', but thanks anyway for the review.**

**Thanks for anyone who wants to review, although as I have said before, totally not necessary. (I do want to know what you think though)**


	6. Chapter 5: Age old Rivalries

**Ok guys, I barely squeezed out time for this since this is the weekend, I am **_**embroiled **_**in exams but good news! I will be able to start updating again next weekend, if I'm lucky, I could find time to make up the few weeks that I didn't update, which means a possible update every few days for a while, aren't you glad?...aren't you?...oh wait I won't be able to hear you, only read what you review…oh well.**

**Ah yes, 'OwO' has asked me if 'the stranger' is the main character, my answer: not yet, later he will be, I've already worked out his personality and description and all.**

**Not let's get started, oh and I don't own D. gray-man, as if you didn't know.**

**This will be the first purely written-on-my-own-with-no-help-whatsoever from the manga chapters.**

Chapter 5: Age old rivalries

_Anybody can win unless there happens to be a second entry.  
>-George Ade<em>

The Earl of Millennium pranced along with an _enormous _grin as usual spread across his face; he was contemplating the appearance of the only person who he had some form of fear off and was wondering what could be done about it, previously, the stranger had not been particularly concerned with him and he was glad for that, but things seemed to have taken a turn for the worse when he was told by Road that the stranger was pretty much in the war and worse of all, on the exorcists side although seeming to have his own personal goals.

He knew very well who the stranger was, and he despaired of a possible hostile and armed encounter with him, many had already fallen when they underestimated him, but at least the Earl had numbers on his side, the stranger almost certainly did not.

He decided to go looking, looking to see if the stranger had anymore living enemies, surely, somewhere out in the world, was a person who hated the stranger with every fiber of his being, who would do anything to end the stranger, even at the cost of his own life.

The earl twisted his hat menacingly, the stranger was quite infamous in the world that the two existed in, and so he must have a lot of enemies who would seek to end his once and for all time, and he long desired for an end to the troublemaker.

So he went off, claiming he had business to take care of when the other Noah inquired, and he headed off into the darkness in search of one who would challenge and hopefully defeat the stranger.

He spent a lot of time searching, but never seemed to be able to find anyone who had survived a previous encounter with the stranger who was still willing to have another go at him.

'I'm telling for the last time: no, that's all there is too it, you can't beat him, no one has or ever will, he's just too powerful, too strong, you may as well give up unless you wanna be screaming and thrashing in hell.' One had told him bluntly.

Others were less polite, calling him a 'maniac', 'lunatic' and completely insane to try. However he came upon a small house in the middle of –quite literally- nowhere he had been directed to it by another who had suggested him as the person the earl was looking for, when he had first knocked on the door, he had been told to go away rather rudely, but once he introduced himself as well as his purpose, the house's occupant exploded.

'I _do not, ever want you to mention him!' _the man screamed_. 'he has caused me untold misery and wretchedness.' _The earl however, quickly stated his purpose for the visit, which deeply interested the man who finally came out to look at him.

'I will join you, give me the power to do it, and I swear that it will be done!' The man cried out, the earl looked him over, the man speaking to him was a rather scrawny and weak looking fellow with bright, blazing hair, and he spoke with incredible anger and emotion with a seething hatred for the stranger.

'But tell me, why should I choose you of so many others I could?' the earl asked tentatively, testing the waters for the man's emotions.

'Because he…he…didn't just destroy me physically, he…completely killed me…inside…that bastard…stole what was most precious to me…' the man trailed of, the earl remained perfectly silent, waiting for him to continue, '…and for that, _he. Must. Pay. _For the suffering that he has wrought on me and the injustices that I have suffered at his hands!' The man cried out, his face contorted in a strange amalgamation of sorrow and anger.

'Give me the power earl! Give it to me! And I will see that he dies painfully for the actions that he has committed against you…and me.' The man finished.

The earl grinned; here he had found his willing and able champion.

'Do you then accept this gift that I bestow upon you to destroy this accursed enemy of ours?' The earl asked.

'Yes! Yes! I accept it with all that I am, to vanquish him, I will do _whatever _it takes!' the man said, his voice barely a whisper.

The earl laughed as he held both his hands out, a dark purple glowing orb appeared and grew and grew until it completely encircled and engulfed the man, the man cried out and screamed as bolts of dark purple energy entered him, he could feel an immense strength growing and growing inside of him, until finally, the orb disappeared and in its place, stood the man, a dark purple aura surrounded him as he knelt down before the earl.

'Thank you my lord, you will is my command. When do I set off for the hunt?' The man asked without any form of humour in his voice, only a cold, dead, longing for vengeance.

The earl laughed with glee looking at the fiery eyes of his newest soldier, 'Not now, not yet, I have bigger plans for him and his "friends", if you would allow me to. I'm sure you want him to suffer first am I right?'

The man hissed quietly, but did not show it instead he simply replied, 'Then it shall be as you command my lord.' The earl laughed maniacally once more as he and his newest soldier disappeared off into the darkness.

_**Elsewhere…**_

The stranger sat in a café by the roadside, he had taken of his coat and revealing a handsome and youthful face with slim cheeks and a thin mouth, he gently and slowly sipped a cup of steaming hot coffee that he held in one hand whilst the other hand flicked through the pages of a newspaper that was supported by his right leg crossed over his left. He was taking a break from watching over his charge in the order, besides an encounter with akuma shortly after going for a walk with an orange-haired exorcist, nothing had happened and he had gone back to the order where the security there could at least protect him in a way.

He sighed, folded the newspaper and placed it down on the table. All of a sudden, he felt a very ominous and foreboding feeling overcome him; he nearly gagged but was able to put his cup down and release the gag with an explosive _'pah'_. He uncrossed his legs and looked around him uncertainly; he could feel it, deep within his gut, an incredibly dangerous feeling of events to come.

He could feel something else as well, someone who knew he had gotten rid of a _very _long time ago and was apparently now back and thirsting for vengeance for the 'sins' that had been committed against him.

The stranger's eyes glowed the same way it had in the rewinding town while he had been seeking his charge. He had no idea why his enemy from ages past had decided to return when he had very nearly died by the stranger's hand.

'He's probably still boiling…still pissed that I "stole" _her_ away from him.' He thought to himself.

'Well…I guess I'll have to show him that I _don't _give second chances.' The stranger smirked to himself as the waitress approached him.

'Excuse me sir, are you done with your coffee?' She asked, the stranger stared at her first, then at his finished cup of coffee.

'Hmm, I hadn't even realized I'd finished it.' He thought.

'Yes thank you I'm done.' The stranger said as he looked up and flashed a smile at the waitress who was surprised and blushed while trying to look away from the handsome face staring at her as well as his remarkable crimson eyes.

'And here's a tip as thanks for your _excellent _service.' The stranger remarked as he put down a few extra dollars and got up to leave.

'I…I…thank you…I never…' The waitress stuttered in surprise.

The stranger simply laughed as he gave a cheeky wink to the waitress and walked off while putting on his coat and zipping it up.

'Mortals…it's _so_ much fun to toy and play around with them and their emotions.' The stranger grinned to himself and he saw the waitress swoon at the sight of what he had just did.

**A rather unremarkable chapter I believe, oh well, what can I say?**

**Seems like things are heating up, the earl has got himself a new soldier, and the story continues without too much problem (except for time).**

**Well I sincerely hope that I can give you guys more chapters when I have the time, until next time guys.**

**Oh wait, one last thing guys, soon I will be posting up a set of notes on my fictionpress account for a novel that I'm hoping to write about a hypothetical world war III scenario between Russia and the rest of the world, so look out for it, the link to my fictionpress account is on my profile page.**

**Soon means within the next few weeks, maybe next week, I would seriously like to hear your opinion for it, but just so you know, this story right here is taking priority.**

**Reviews appreciated, not necessary as usual.**


	7. Chapter 6: A Bitter Hatred

**Whoops, sorry I'm a little late on delivering, I got so caught up and glad that my dumb exams were over that I kind of forgot about writing and actually was reading more than anything else.**

**Oh well, it's back to business as usual for the next few weeks at least until the next bunch of exams come up, then come June I will have loads more time to spend on this and will update this till it's complete as soon as possible.**

**For now just sit back, relax and read.**

**I don't own -man; you should've known that since the start.**

**Chapter 6: A bitter hatred**

_Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people's happiness, and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race.  
><em>_-Bertrand Russell_

'I don't know whether it will work or not, but it would be good to put this on his wounds.' The old lady said as she handed the finder a bowl of something. Meanwhile, Lenalee had pulled up a chair and sat beside the unconscious and heavily wounded Kanda while watching her injured comrade intently.

'We will try it.' The finder replied as Lenalee got up and put her hand to Kanda's forehead to check his temperature.

'I don't mind.' The old lady answered before going back out into the main room of her little cottage where Allen sat on a chair with bandages wrapping his rather badly injured left arm and parts of his body.

'How's Allen?' Lenalee asked as the finder handed her the bowl of something.

'It seems he's alright. Even I was shocked when his left arm wouldn't move, but he's recovering now, it seems to have temporary nerve paralysis.' The finder answered.

'That's a relief' Lenalee said thankfully.

'If I may…' the finder said as Lenalee looked up at him.

'There's a story I want Allen and you to hear.' He finished.

'What is it?' Lenalee asked as the finder led her out of the room.

When they were all seated and comfortable inside the main room, the finder began first, 'Kanda became tired after two straight days of fighting Victorio, so he slept in a small cottage in the mountains, while he rested, I went around researching myths that had been passed down in this area. That was when I met this old lady and heard about the story of Sandra and Victorio.'

The old lady began her story revealing that the entire mess started at least a whole thousand years ago; a beautiful princess that was named Sandra was born to the king who ruled the land. When she had come of age, many men from various places appeared, seeking her hand in marriage, however, she refused all that came before her regardless of how grand or great the engagement would be, she did however, tell them one thing.

'I will become the wife of the strongest man in the world.'

With that said they were made to challenge and test their strength against the king's champion fighter, a man named Victorio. As a result, men came from all over the world to challenge Victorio, and the fights had continued for some time until after the princess fell ill and died. After every fight, he would go and report to the princess that the strongest man in the world had yet to be found

'And they are said to continue even now.' The old lady finished.

Before Allen or Lenalee could speak a word though, the old lady started talking again.

'But there is a twist to this story, one that should surprise you.' Everyone perked up at this.

'While the legends say that Victorio remained undefeated for all time, a rather obscure and largely forgotten part of the story states that he did in fact lose one duel.'

'Only one?' Allen inquired.

'Only one.' The old lady confirmed.

'This happened some time after the duels began when Victorio was winning every duel that he fought. It is said that a stranger, dressed in a crimson coat and with blazing eyes one day came up into the king's court one day and asked the king for the chance to challenge Victorio not for the heart of Sandra, but to prove that he was a better fighter than Victorio.' The old lady paused for a moment to let this sink in before continuing.

'The king agreed, and the two fought a private duel without the presence of the princess, it is said that they fought fiercely without letup for a whole day before the stranger finally disarmed Victorio and won the duel.'

'However, the stranger was not satisfied with the performance of Victorio, he thought that the champion was not fighting his best because they were not fighting in front of the princess and told the fighter that he would come back the next day and challenge him publicly in front of the princess. The next day with the crowds cheering the two on, the two fought as starving lions fight over food, the duel went back and forth for two days but finally, the stranger out fought the exhausted Victorio and disarmed him. For that, the princess fell in love with him.' The old lady said.

'So did they get married in the end?' Allen asked.

'No. Instead, when Sandra went down to meet what she thought was her future husband, he broke her heart, revealed that his sole purpose for the duel was to prove that he was a better man than Victorio, not to fight for love, with that he left, and it is said that it this that caused the Sandra to fall ill and die.' The old lady finished.

For a moment everyone sat in silence to let this sink in, and then a noise was heard coming from the room where Kanda lay.

The group found Kanda sitting upright and removing the bandages from his body.

'I'm going to go back and duel that bastard again.' He remarked simply as he began to remove the last of the bandages.

'That's absurd!' Allen almost shouted.

'Your wounds are still-'

'They've healed' Kanda replied in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone. They weren't in fact, there were still very large red marks over his mid-section that looked like they could start bleeding again.

He got up and began to put on his coat while saying that it was his job to defeat Victorio and retrieve the innocence.

'But how?' Lenalee asked.

'Even if you cut him with Mugen, he'll still regenerate.'

'I'll think of something.' He answered.

At this point, the finder burst into the room and said that Akuma had once again appeared in the ruins and were fighting Victorio.

A this, the three exorcists argued for a moment, Kanda wanted to just get going, defeat Victorio and retrieve the innocence before it was stolen by the akuma, Lenalee and Allen wanted him to stay and rest while both of them went out to get it, Kanda refused, stating that neither would be able to defeat him, Allen responded by stating that Victorio would not be so easily defeated by the akuma and that the only person's life that was in danger was Claudia's. Allen added that Kanda ought to stay behind and figure out how he was going to defeat Victorio.

'Think about it?' Kanda almost shouted.

'Don't order me arou-'He was cut off when Allen activated his innocence and pushed back onto the bed.

'As long as you think about it, you'll find a good method.' Allen said as both he and Lenalee turned and ran out of the house.

Meanwhile, at the arena, Victorio fought and destroyed multiple akuma as Allen and Lenalee entered the arena, right as the champion destroyed the last of the level ones, a massive level two akuma burst out of the ground and launched a wave of energy at him, Victorio dodged all of its attacks before jumping upwards and giving the akuma a very large slash that bisected it vertically perfectly.

Seeing that, Allen tried to reason with Victorio, telling him that it was useless for him to continue fighting because Sandra was dead. Victorio rebuffed him, telling him that the princess was alive and wanted him to continue fighting and winning duels with whoever came along.

So saying, he pointed his very _large _and scary looking- what with the jagged teeth and very broad blade-at Allen and ordered a duel between the two. Allen resisted, and continued trying to convince the man that he needed to stop fighting, Victorio however, ignored the plea and slashed the area that the two exorcists were standing on, Lenalee jumped away while Allen landed in the arena and activated his innocence and begin fighting the swordsman while Lenalee tried to convince Claudia to tell Victorio to give up. Claudia refused, stating that it would be alright for Victorio to continue fighting on and on.

Meanwhile, the bounty hunters from the day before had returned with a vengeance bringing out more armaments to lay waste to the arena, someone had even procured a cannon from somewhere, they were beginning to gather at a distance from the arena where they wouldn't be seen by the current combatants. Allen and Victorio continued fighting even though it was patently obvious as to who was losing and who was winning as Victorio dealt blow after devastating blow against Allen's innocence.

At this point a voice rang seemingly out of nowhere.

'VICTORIO!' A voice shouted from the top of the wall surrounding the arena.

Everyone looked up to see the person in question, there sitting and leaning back the uppermost level of the arena, the stranger had a good view of everyone in the arena, he smirked at the two combatants in the ring.

Victorio replied first, his voice full of anger and hatred, 'YOU!'

At this, the stranger sat forward, gripped the edges of the platform he was on, and launched himself forward, he landed gracefully and his two feet with his coat fluttering out behind him.

'Victorio,' He said with outstretched arms, 'how long has it been? A thousand? But your _still_ kicking around, _still _causing trouble, maybe I should've just killed you right there and then all those centuries ago, but I guess now will just have to do.' The stranger remarked before grasping the handle of his sword with his right arm, yanked it out and struck the floor of the arena with it, causing a loud '_clang' _to reverberate through the arena.

'To avenge the pride that I lost to you, I swear I will kill you this time!' Victorio shouted as he now turned to face the stranger.

The stranger seeing this, then turned to Allen, 'Get out of here and protect the girl kid, if this guy is still as predictable as he was a thousand years ago, I won't break a sweat now.' The stranger remarked.

Allen debated in his mind for a moment, on the one hand, he was shocked to see the same person who had defeated Victorio such a long time ago appear again, as the person who he had seen on a number of occasions no less, on the other hand, he was glad that help of some form had arrived, he backed off and went to join Lenalee.

The stranger watched the retreating exorcist before turning back to his opponent.

'Well let's get started shall we?' He sneered and pointed his long and dangerous looking sword at the ancient swordsman, as he did, Allen got a good look at it and was stunned by what he saw, the sword was a single-edged blade, curved, at least as long as the stranger was tall, it had a black cutting edge with a shiny red rear, the hilt was a grayish-black with some kind of pattern on it.

The stranger and Victorio began circling each other cautiously, Victorio had a massive and large build compared to the stranger's rather skinny and tall one, but the two faced each other down carefully.

'I like the new toy you've got, where'd you get it from? A graveyard?' The stranger taunted.

'And what about you? That looks so flimsy it could fall apart if I touched it.' Victorio taunted back, the stranger merely grinned.

Without warning, the two ran at each other at full speed, their two blades, one broad and large, the other long and slender clashed with a sound that rang throughout the arena, the two pushed against each other until the force pushed the two backwards, they ran at each other again, thrusting their swords forward and parrying each other thrust with incredible strength.

The stranger then shifted the blade of his sword ever so slightly to the left and lunged forward once Victorio fell forward over the sudden loss of a force pushing from the other side, the stranger threw his right arm out wards as he rushed forward and made a downward slash straight at Victorio, Victorio dodged by leaning to his left before spinning around to strike the stranger from behind, the stranger threw his arm backwards again and blocked the blow easily.

The two pushed against each other before the stranger made a surprise move, holding his sword firmly in place with both hands, he back flipped and landed right on Victorio's sword, pushing it to the ground while leaving his right arm across his chest while still gripping the sword, Victorio was caught off guard by the move and couldn't respond for a moment, which was all the stranger needed. He launched himself forward while twisting his body to the right, the added momentum of the spin coupled with the diagonal slash upwards from left to right sliced of Victorio's arm along with a good chunk of his shoulder.

It had all happened so quickly that no one knew how to react for a moment, Victorio was so stunned by the move that he collapsed on his knees, his arm grasping the wound where-formerly-his other arm had been. The stranger for his part sheathed his sword on his back and stared at the bleeding, dying warrior as the hair on his head began to turn white from the loss of his immortality.

Claudia cried out upon seeing this and rushed down to check Victorio, Victorio however, realized now what had happened as well as all of the years that had passed and remarked that she wasn't Sandra, as he lay dying, he flashed back to time right after his second fight with the stranger, he remembered how he realized that he did not ever want to see Sandra in other man's arms and had wanted to continue winning forever and that at that moment, a brilliant light had shown down and the sword materialized before him.

'Thank you…for this…last battle…' Victorio said to the stranger as he felt his life ebb away.

The stranger cocked his head to the side and said in a rather bored voice, 'Your welcome.' At this point they were joined in the arena by the other two exorcists, while Lenalee cupped her hands over her mouth and stared at the dying Victorio; Allen looked at the stranger who began walking over to the sword that Victorio had dropped.

At this moment Kanda entered the arena and saw his opponent bleeding and dying, he was shocked to think that the beansprout and Lenalee had defeated the swordsman until he saw the stranger, who stopped and turned his head to return the look.

'Look who's running late, sorry pal I finished up while you were gone.' The stranger said with a shrug. He then picked up the sword that Victorio had used and gripped it with his left hand.

'Hey what are you-' Allen began but didn't finish as the stranger smashed the sword with his left hand, out of the falling shards the innocence shard fell out and fell to the floor, the stranger picked it up and tossed it over to Allen.

'This what you're looking for?' He asked.

Allen caught it and looked at it for a moment before turning to the stranger who was already walking to the entrance of the arena. At this point, he was interrupted by Kanda who jumped in front of him and pointed his blade at the stranger.

'Hey, who the hell are you?' He asked in a very demanding tone.

'Nobody in particular,' The stranger answered, 'and do you mind _not _pointing that at me, I was just leaving.' He said as he pushed past Kanda and kept walking towards the entrance.

At this point, the army of bounty hunters had arrived at the arena; they were fully prepared to bring the full brunt of their weaponry to bear on their one target but were stunned to see their target dead and dying on the floor of the arena, meanwhile the stranger-whose sword was still coated with Victorio's blood- pushed past them and walked up the hill and away from the arena. He was met with angry glares and stares, none which bothered him in the least, he did however, pause just before reaching the top when he saw the carriage with the girl's father and her fiancé pull up. The girl's fiancé got out first and seeing the blood on the blade of the stranger's sword, immediately recognized him as the killer of his fiancée's kidnapper.

'Congratulations, the reward is-' He began.

'Keep it, I have no use for it, maybe if you're feeling charitable you can give it to them.' The stranger interrupted and jerked his thumb back at the rest of the bounty hunters.

Then he went and peered into the carriage and saw the father of the girl sitting down.

'If you're thinking of how you could've been a better father, I'll tell it to you in a short sentence: _let her go her own way._' He said sternly to the shocked father before turning away and walking off.

'Hey!' A voice called out to him.

'Great, now what?' The stranger muttered to himself as he turned around and saw Allen approaching him.

Panting, Allen caught up to him and asked, 'Who are you?'

The stranger simply smirked at him and turned away while saying, 'That's not important now, I'll be seeing you later Allen Walker.' As he continued walking away, leaving a stunned Allen.

**Another long and rather dull and tedious chapter, a very uninteresting fight scene, and lots of other crap happening, oh well nothing I can do about it, you'll have to wait for the later chapters.**

**Oh yes, it was my first ever time writing a fight scene, so I just imagined it in my head and wrote it out as best as I could.**

**Reviews appreciated, not necessary since I do this for fun and because it's my hobby.**


	8. Chapter 7: Vampire, Demons and Exorcists

**Phew! That's the second update after the exam, but I've got time now, so it's ok, we think. But I may have to go on another hiatus soon because another stupid exam is coming at the end of May, although this is only a single subject thankfully so it will only be for a week at most, I will never abandon this fanfic in case you're wondering, maybe.**

**But let's start quickly, before I start making one too many errors in my spelling courtesy of not being a hundred per cent on task.**

**I write this down every now and then so you guys don't get ahead of yourselves, I don't own D. gray-man**

**Chapter 7: Vampires, Demons and Exorcists**

_All writers are vampires.  
>-James Gandolfini<em>

'God has not abandoned us!' The mayor shouted.

'Master black clergymen! Please do something to get rid of Krory!'

'But we specialize in akuma…' Lavi protested.

'Incredible! You can even exorcise demons! Your hearts are so strong!' The mayor shouted again.

'No…not that kind of akuma.' Lavi remarked softly.

'What kind of person was he, that "traveler"?' Allen asked with a hint of fear under toning his voice.

'This kind!' The mayor shouted yet again and held up a portrait of General Cross.

_Sometime later…_

'I see' Lenalee said.

'I guess we should obey the orders, since they were left by General Cross.' She continued.

'In that case, you bookman and Tim go on ahead.' Allen responded into the Golem.

'Ok. Be careful you two, you'll become vampires too if you let yourselves be bitten by that vampire guy. Don't become one ok?' She said worriedly.

'Right.' Both men replied at the same time.

'_Lenalee believes in those vampire stories…' _they both thought.

'There's no such thing as vampires anymore, right Allen?' Lavi whispered as the two attempted to make their getaway quietly.

'Right.' Allen whispered in return.

'You two! Stop!' The mayor shouted, he was holding the both them with a length of string tied around their bodies.

Both Lavi and Allen had no choice as they both turned around reluctantly and began walking up the hill to the castle.

'Hey Allen.' Lavi said.

'Yeah?' Allen answered.

'Do you see those crows?' Lavi said and pointed out several crows sitting on tree branches around them. Allen looked up as they continued walking and true enough, there were several crows watching them rather intently. He counted eighteen of them grouped into three sets of six.

'But it's at night…' Allen remarked.

'Yeah, that's what's so weird about them.' Lavi said.

'Eek! Crows!' The mayor yelped when he saw the crows seated on the branches. Everyone stopped to look at them, they _were_ very creepy the way they focused their unblinking gazes upon the motley crew of villagers and the two exorcists.

'C-C-Crows? N-N-No that's it! I'm out of here!' One of the villagers screamed and tried to run away, he was halted by the mayor.

'But you agreed to kill the vampire regardless of the danger…' He whispered in a dangerous and threatening voice.

'No! C-Crows are a sign! They're a sign of things to come!' He whimpered. The mayor immediately tried to convince otherwise while the scared out-of-his-wits-and-mind villager wanted to run as fast as possible away.

Lavi sighed and walked up to one of the sets of crows and tried to shoo them away with his hand. They didn't budge.

He tried again, this time closer.

They _still _didn't budge.

He tried one more time and went closer still.

*Squawk!* went one of the crows and tried to peck at his hand. Lavi withdrew his hand before he could and backed away. At this point, the most frightening thing possible happened, all of the crows immediately started calling in various noises. If this happened in broad daylight, maybe no one would have bothered, or in the very least, only been partly startled. This happened at _night, _in a darkness lit by lamps, on the way to a castle, which was possibly occupied by a vampire, to do battle with him. This tested nerves already raw with fear to the breaking point, and then blew said nerves right out of the water, giving a rather dramatic effect.

'We've got to get out of here!' A villager cried in terror.

'We're all doomed!' Yelled another.

In the midst of the chaos, the two exorcists stood still watching the mayhem break loose, their hearts beating fast, sweat poured down their bodies as their breaths became shorter and sharper. Their eyes shifted from side to side, watching for any threats. The mayor meanwhile, began his signature shouting in an attempt to calm the crowd which was delirious with fear.

'That's weird…' Lavi remarked suddenly.

'What?' Allen asked.

'The crows I mean, if we were fighting a vampire…wouldn't you expect bats instead?'

'That's true…' Allen remarked.

'And it's almost as if their mocking us or something…'

Almost as if in response to his words, all the crows stopped calling at the same time and took off, their wings fluttering as they dispersed and headed towards the castle. It was at this point that everyone became aware of someone laughing quite hard in the distance.

'What the…who's there?' Allen shouted shakily.

At this point, a dark figure seemingly appeared from the darkness itself and stepped in front of the group, still giggling away. Allen recognized him at once.

'You!' Allen said in shock.

'Wow*gasp*oh my*snicker* you should've*laugh*seen your own faces!' The stranger shouted before bursting out into another fit of laughter and keeled over clutching his stomach.

Allen looked rather disturbingly at the new arrival, who he had not seen since the fight he had with the Millennium swordsman a few days ago. The stranger for his part recovered rather quickly and stood up straight though still with a big grin on his face.

'What the…you know this guy?' Lavi asked Allen with a questioning face.

'We're old acquaintances actually…' The stranger remarked.

'No I don't remember you… we only just met a few days ago…' Allen replied.

'Yeah…you _don't remember_ _anything _do you?' The stranger returned.

Before Allen could reply, the stranger waved his hand and continued, 'But like I already told you, it will be told in due time…and now is not the time…cause it sounds like you have some vampire hunting to do.' He finished and walked in the direction of the castle.

'Well aren't you coming?' He asked irritably as he continued walking.

By this time, the mayor had somehow calmed the crowd down and both Allen and Lavi had recovered their senses enough to continue walking up the hill, they followed the stranger until they got to the very gates of the castle of the vampire named Krory.

'We've reached the gates of Baron Krory's castle.' The mayor said, before going to give a short explanation of the castle. All of a sudden, anguished cries could be heard coming from within the castle, both exorcists swallowed hard while shivering from fright although neither would admit it.

'Forward!' The mayor demanded with gleaming eyes at the duo, they could only softly mutter out an affirm answer. Instead, the stranger led the way, with both arms he pushed open the gate as far he could stretch them and continued on into the castle.

'How does he stay so calm?' The exorcists wondered, neither had so much seen the stranger so much as tense when the cries had sounded, while both were quite scared, they had no choice since an angry mob was pretty much behind them the whole way.

They entered a rather dark and dreary place, full of rather horrid and disgusting and gut-wrenching statues of all manner of creatures...as well as the crows from before. At this point, Lavi noticed something,

'Allen, why'd you take off your glove? Are you scared?' Lavi teased.

'No…' Allen replied rather unconvincingly, and then Allen noticed something himself.

'Now that you mention it Lavi, why do you also have your hand on your weapon?' Allen remarked.

'I'm not scared or anything.' Lavi replied, he didn't sound very convincing either.

'Maybe if the both of you shut up and get a move on we cou-' the stranger started but then stopped mid-sentence, he also stopped walking.

'What's wron-' Allen started by was cut off when the stranger raised his hand and hushed him.

Allen and Lavi saw the stranger lower his hand and head for a moment before he turned around and gave them both an open-mouthed grin, his wide crimson eyes flashed from side to side, his mouth closed into a grin with his lips pulled back and he remarked softly,

'He's here…' the stranger turned his head back, 'and he's coming closer…'

'What's wrong?' The mayor asked, Lavi hushed him.

'Shh, something here.'

The stranger grinned, 'Here we go…' He thought gleefully.

Right then, something rushed past both him and the two exorcists like a gust of wind, all three felt the presence the instant it had passed them, but the villagers were less responsive.

'He's _fast_!' The stranger remarked as he spun around to check the group behind him. And then a terrible cry was heard from the back of the group of villagers.

'It got Franz!' A villager cried out. When the trio at the front turned to see what had happened, a ghastly sight greeted them.

There, standing at the back of the group, one of the villagers was being held in the air by something, his terrified stare a permanent fixture on his face, holding him, a tall, dark and slender figure in a cloak was tearing out the man's neck with razor sharp teeth, he looked like a horror story that had come to life, his eyes were devoid of any emotion but a terrible hunger, he had a white lock of hair that stood up amongst the rest of his ebony black hair, all in all, the stereotypical image of Count Dracula…almost.

There was a _terribly_ ghastly silence.

And then there were _two_ terribly _ghastly _noises

A very _long _and _loud _*Slurp*

Followed by an equally _long_ and equally _loud _*Swallow* while everyone-except the stranger-looked on in horror.

And there was a terrible ghastly silence

But since the earth _wasn't _blown up like in _the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy_, the silence was able to be followed by _another_ ghastly noise.

The villagers all screamed as one, panicked like sheep before wolves they ran as fast as their legs could carry them, meanwhile, the "vampire" was faced down by the two exorcists plus their un-named ally, the exorcists activated their innocence-s while the stranger pulled out his sword and remarked, 'Well now, that's quite the welcoming party…although in all fairness we should've knocked first.'

The stranger already knew from his ability to see otherworldly substances and beings what was going on, so he let the two exorcists take the lead while preparing a defense of his own in case of an attack.

The "vampire" charged the two exorcists, still clutching the dead man in his jaws; he dodged Allen's first attack with his arm cannon, before being confronted with Lavi's hammer which was brought crashing down on him.

"How'd you like that!' Lavi exclaimed in triumph.

As the smoke and dust cleared, the duo was stunned to see the "vampire" holding up the entire hammer with nothing but his teeth.

'No way…check out those teeth!' Lavi exclaimed in shock.

The "vampire" then swung his head back, bringing the hammer crashing down onto the ground. He then spied the stranger standing off to the side and charged him; the stranger held out his open left hand and to the amazement of everyone, blocked the "vampire's" charge without budging an inch.

'Oh _my_, what big teeth you have!' The stranger remarked with a grin, he then moved his body forward and pushed the "vampire" off with an incredible amount of force, however the vampire simply did a back flip while flying and landed on his feet easily and prepared for a second attack.

He didn't get the chance; Allen grabbed him with his left arm and held him in the air,

'Behave' Allen said threateningly and ran one of his claws against the "vampire's" cheek.

The "vampire" burst out into a fit of manic laughter.

'Strange children! Stop wasting my time!' He shouted, 'you two are monsters too hm?'

'We're exorcists' Allen corrected.

'Well…_two _of us actually.' The stranger corrected in return.

'Good evening to you all…I'm busy.' The "vampire" said.

'SO LET GO OF ME!' He shouted and bit one of Allen's claws.

Allen was stunned when his teeth pierced right through the thick armor of his claw, he released the man in pain while the "vampire" stumbled backwards coughing and spluttering before running off, declaring that it was "very bitter".

'Lenalee is never going to talk to you again Allen, you're gonna be excommunicated!' Lavi said, shaken from the encounter.

**In the interest of time and space since the interactions here should be known to all of you by now, I'll just fast forward to the bits with my OC in it.**

After a lot of fighting with a forest of giant man-eating flowers, losing the stranger who seemed to have disappeared into thin air after fighting the giant man-eating flowers, and then fighting finding a graveyard and figuring out that the "vampire" was actually an exorcist who _happened _to have an innocence that allowed him to drink an akuma's blood, and then fighting the "vampire" himself who had wanted to destroy them (who trashed them by the way), and then fighting the "vampire's" lover who turned out to be an akuma herself, then a confrontation between Krory and his lover, and then getting attacked one more time by the flowers combined with Krory getting nearly killed by Eliade's attack, it boiled down mostly to this.

'If there exists a man I cannot kill…he would be…the man who would destroy me.' Eliade thought to herself, she was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't see the drained body of Krory leap from where he was lying and bite her neck.

'What's this…you can still move...?' Eliade said with surprise, _'How ironic' _she thought.

With that, Krory sucked the last of her blood from her body and killed her right then and there. In his wrecked emotional state, he remembered his grandfather and screamed to be killed, having completely lost the will to live. One of the flowers obliged, eating him and the other two exorcists, however he was eventually persuaded by Allen to join them and continue to battle akuma, Krory accepted and the trio were able to get out of the flower.

Once they got out of the flower a single person clapped in applause and stepped out of the darkness.

'Bravo, nicely done the three of you.' He smirked.

'…And where were you when all this was happening.' Allen asked scathingly.

'Here and there…_watching…_' The stranger trailed off and looked up at the sky and grinned.

'Ah…here come my fans.' He said with a hint of disgust in his voice. As he said that, the flock of crows descended from the sky and began to make a feast of the remains of the plants which had been previously destroyed by the exorcists, a few even pecked at the remains of Eliade's clothing.

'Hey get away from that!' Krory shouted and tried to kick the crows away, to his surprise, the crows didn't fly away, instead they turned on him and tried to peck him, he retreated while the stranger chuckled.

'They're pretty fierce crows mate…I wouldn't go disturbing them when they're hungry if I were you, they're probably not normal either, at least I don't think they are…' He said.

'So then what are they…?' Lavi questioned.

The stranger shrugged, 'Not sure, but they've been following me around for quite some time now, probably realized that wherever I go, a fresh kill is always close by or some such crap like that.' Allen shuddered at that, _'fresh kill…' _he thought nervously.

After finding out about the plant and that General Cross had been through the area (along with the fact that he borrowed money from Krory), the two exorcists plus one unknown person and a flock of crows waited outside the castle for Krory, while Allen mused that his master would have been able to get from the current area all the way to China with the amount of money that he had borrowed.

All of a sudden, there was an ear-splitting and explosion that rocked the entire area and completely consumed the castle, Allen and Lavi could only stare in horror while the stranger stood silently, completely transfixed by the explosion and the flames that reached up into the night sky.

'_Beautiful…' _He thought to himself.

As the two exorcists watched in horror, a figure stepped out of the castle amidst the flames and rubble falling all around, he laughed at the duo for the expression on their faces, asking them if they had thought he had died.

The stranger grinned as he watched Lavi and Allen trip over themselves in trying to explain that they had _only _been surprised by the explosion, nothing more.

'_Must be nice to be so young and so _gullible_.' _The stranger thought to himself.

After that, they went down into the village to try and convince the villagers that Krory was not a threat, emphasis on the word 'try'.

None of the villagers believed the exorcists, they had _tried _to explain that Krory was not a vampire, they had _tried_ to show the villagers that the ones that had been killed were actually akuma, and they had _further _tried to show that Krory was quite harmless and was quite shy, well when I say 'they', I mean that the stranger watched all of it happen without doing anything at all, and in the end, all of them were chased away to the train station.

On the way to the train station, both Allen and Lavi repeatedly tried to cheer up Krory without any success, and the stranger eventually got rather annoyed by this.

'You know…you don't _have _to think about what everyone else thinks about you.' He said in a rather irritated tone. At this everyone turned to face him.

'…what…?' Krory asked sadly.

'Why do you care so much about what other people think, all that matters is that you did the right thing, even though people hate you for it.' The stranger said nonchalantly.

'…because no one…no one has ever cared for me before…' Krory whimpered after a pause, the stranger sighed.

'You will learn in time, humans are fickle things, they fear what they don't understand, and they hate what they see as different…but isn't it better to be different? To say that "I was able to this", "I was able to act when no one else could", for me it's always been that way, and it likely always will be.' The stranger said.

'…I…don't know what to say…' Krory stammered out while the other two looked on.

'In time kid, you will learn a lot of things, although you _will_ have to learn fast, since you know…well…' The stranger trailed off.

'Kid?' everyone said in surprise.

'But…aren't I older than you?' Krory asked incredulously.

'…_are _you now…?' The stranger smirked as he leaned forward into Krory's face while grinning.

'But,' He said as he dropped back to his original position, 'my time here is at an end, I'll be seeing you soon, Allen Walker…' The stranger said as he walked off into the distance and disappeared.

**Well that's done that, it seems that writing up to around 3000 words seems to be getting a little commonplace here.**

**Sorry I updated a little late, I say that because I was hoping to update this before Firday but I guess writer's block got to me for a bit.**

**And that part about not caring about what others think? That's what I always say to someone who's trying (and inevitably failing) to fit into their environment, I always tell them that they shouldn't give a rat's ass for what people think and that they should just be their normal, usual selves, I always tell them, 'why do you wanna fit in when you can stand out?'. Given the environment that I live in, it's one of the easiest things to do, which makes me quite noticeable, most of the time at least.**

**Reviews appreciated, as usual.**


	9. Chapter 8: The Silent Audience

**Another update! Yes, looks like I'm finally making some proper progress with this thing.**

**This is mostly written from the viewpoint of the stranger. **

**Not much to say, other than I don't own -man**

**Chapter 8: The Silent Audience**

_"It's like a blind spot. It's something you don't see, or can't see, or your brain doesn't let you see because it assumes that it's__Somebody. Else's. Problem."  
>-Ford Prefect<em>

_The stranger watched the exorcist called Daisya Barry and the Noah of pleasure Tyki Mikk fight, it had been quite obvious to him from the start that the exorcist did not stand much of a chance against the Noah._

'_Still, he is putting up a rather good fight.' _The stranger thought.

The fight had begun when the two had encountered each other in a street in the city they were in that had come under vicious attack by the Akuma and despite the valiant efforts of the rather large group of finders in the city, most of them were dead, the Akumas' had invaded the city and the rest will eventually become nothing more than dark lines on a sheet of paper somewhere.

'_Probably…that is if any of the civilians survive to tell about this' _the stranger contemplated, while General Froi Tiedoll's group had arrived in the middle of the attack, there were so many Akuma that they had no choice but to split up in order to cover as much of the city as possible, this meant that they were now all on their own, able to be picked off easily by _any_ Noah. The Akuma were so numerous the stranger had to fight a whole bunch of them _just _to enter the city, and then another large group once he got into the city, and then a few here and there.

While his charge was at the moment on his way to China, and the stranger was normally loathe to leave him, he had noticed the rise in activity at this particular point and could not resist investigating the cause of it, it turned out that the Akuma were trying to hunt the Generals down since the Earl thought that the innocence heart would be a particularly powerful innocence.

'_Smart move, even if you don't attain your objective, you eliminate what you know to be the strongest first.' _The stranger continued thinking.

But his focus now veered back to the fight between the exorcist and the Noah, it seemed that he had lost a lot of time thinking about things, because now the exorcist had had his innocence destroyed by the Noah, and was completely helpless.

'_Should I help him? Or should I leave him to die like a pawn in god's great chess game with the devil?'_

He knew that if he continued thinking about it, eventually the exorcist would die and the issue would be resolved without anymore issues coming up, he made his decision, and that night, Daisya Barry, exorcist apprentice under General Tiedoll of the Black order who had run away from home at a young age, died a rather painful death, with one of his organs eaten by a Teez golem implanted within his body by the Noah.

The stranger didn't even tense at the sight, he'd watched men die before, in even more gruesome and horrifying ways than the one he had just witnessed, he shrugged and watched the Noah as he crucified the exorcist upside down on a nearby lamppost, meanwhile, the crows began gathering in anticipation of a quick and easy meal.

'_The earl knows of my presence in the war, by extension, so do the Noah, but I'm still and unknown quantity within the Black Order since I doubt that Allen and his friends would have the presence of mind to alert the Order, I think I shall remain hidden for now, I won't reveal my hand just yet, no one yet knows the full extent of my power, it shall be the ultimate playing card.' _The stranger grinned rather maliciously to himself.

'_I think I better follow that Tyki Mikk guy around for a bit, he seems to be a bit of a troublemaker for the Black Order, if it comes to it, I may have to kill him.'_

And it turned out that Tyki Mikk was far, _far _more than just a troublemaker for the Order, while quietly following him, the stranger watched him as he killed two of the exorcists assigned to find General Winters Socalo, the third, named Suman Dark, was completely broken from seeing the deaths of his comrades, who had a family and wanted to be able to see them again, betrayed the Order. He had begged-almost on his hands and knees- for the Noah to spare his life, Tyki had agreed, in return, Suman contacted the Order and then furnished the Noah with the locations of various exorcists around the world as well as finder groups.

It had been quite a sad, sorry sight, although the stranger wasn't too sure for who exactly it was exactly, himself, or the Noah. He watched as the exorcist passed out and the Noah, laughing madly at his success, disappeared through a door and went on his way.

'_Should I have helped? Probably not, if his pathetic whining and begging was any indication, although he did say he had a family that he wanted to see again. Would I have made the same choice in his position?'_The stranger wondered to himself.

'_No.' _The stranger finally decided with a shake of his head, '_My family wouldn't have wanted me to commit such an atrocious form of treachery, they would be sad at the fact that I was dead, but to that end, I wouldn't have gone down so pitifully either considering _who_ I am in the first place.'_

He watched the fallen exorcist for a moment, waiting to see if he would rise, he didn't, and the stranger knew that Suman Dark-whoever he was- would face terrible repercussions for his actions. The stranger walked off and prepared to return to his charge, he already knew in his head to events that would transpire, the exorcists whose locations had been given up would eventually die, and so would all of the finder groups that had been given up as well.

He could've helped, he could've stopped the Noah and perhaps have saved dozens of lives and possibly more than that. But he didn't feel as though he ought to have cared all that much.

'_The Order…will be shaken by the deaths of so many, they will question what they did wrong, and Suman-if he lives-will likely be killed or have something done to him, unless they're feeling compassionate enough to give him a second chance, or they could decide that his family is too much of a factor in this and have him booted forever…' _The stranger laughed at that.

'_Humans are such weak, selfish and rather silly beings… they are constantly driven by what they will be able to seek in the short term for themselves rather than the repercussions that will affect everyone in the long term. How much longer will they hold out before they start becoming drastic?' _The stranger wondered to himself before disappearing away from the scene.

'_Not much longer.' _He concluded.

Several days later, the bodies of 6 exorcists and 142 finders were cremated and buried on the Black Order grounds in order to prevent their families from possibly summoning them back as Akuma. The stranger was present at the battles that took place between the Black Order and the Noah Tyki Mikk, the team of General Klaud Nine had done better than General Socalo's, using teamwork they fought of Tyki for as long as they possibly, the Noah proved to strong however, and one by one they fell.

The stranger simply looked on as Tina Sparks gritted her teeth and told the Noah to go to hell right before he killed her.

_**Maybe the stranger should've helped out, maybe he shouldn't have, and maybe he was suffering from a SEP field, but whatever.**_

_**I don't know how to spell most of the names that are uncommon here, so I just took them off of the -man wiki.**_

_**This chapter is quite short because it simply shows the stranger's position compared to the events since there is actually a long gap between this chapter and the next one chronologically in the manga and anime series.**_

_**Reviews are appreciated, though not necessary, it is actually ok if you just read it, I have ways and means of knowing it.**_


	10. Chapter 9: Close Encounters

**A few updates in such a short span of time, I want to finish this as quickly as possible for two reasons.**

**I can start on something else I've been planning**

**You readers will be able to finish reading.**

**So anyway let's hurry up and start. **

**Oh, and I don't own -man.**

_We are not alone.  
>-Close encounters of the third kind<em>

'So, I'll finally be reunited with master…' Allen lamented as he sat in a boat with Lenalee, Krory and Bookman while Lavi paddled them along, the group was moving up a river in China to a city where they would hopefully be able to meet with Allen's master, the exorcist General Cross.

'It makes me happy, but also sad.' He continued in a very depressed tone. No one answered him, and the group continued down the river slowly.

All of a sudden, Allen jerked his head up and inhaled sharply; he stood up and looked out over the side of the boat.

'What is it?' Lenalee asked.

'Just now, it felt like somebody was watching us.' Allen said.

'Maybe a panda?' He wondered.

'Allen…I bet you think there are pandas everywhere just because we're in China.'

'Eh?'

'There aren't.'

'Ah! There's even a panda here too!' Lavi shouted in an attempt to make a joke by pointing at Bookman. Bookman turned around and stared at him.

'Him too…' Lenalee said.

'Enough already.' Krory remarked irritably.

'Good for nothings.' Bookman said angrily.

They continued on for some distance, but Allen couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching them; this made him quite twitchy and jumpy which irritated the rest of the group on the boat who began to make jokes at his expense.

'Hey! What was that?' Lavi shouted suddenly.

'What! Where?' Allen shouted and looked around, and then noticed everyone was giggling.

'Hey that wasn't funny!' Allen remarked annoyed.

'Yeah carrot head! Think up better jokes next time will ya?' A voice rang out of nowhere.

Everyone looked at each other with a confused expression,

'Who said that?' Krory asked.

'The riverbank numb-skulls!' The voice came a second time.

Everyone turned to look at the riverbank on their left, sure enough, sitting calmly and waving to them was the stranger, black coat, crows, absurdly long sword and all.

'You again…' Allen muttered

'Oi! Are you stalking us or something?' Lavi called out.

The stranger stood up and followed them along the riverbank as they floated and shrugged.

'Maybe, maybe not.' He answered.

Before anyone could answer him, *Bump!*, and the boat halted in the middle of the river.

'What was that?' Krory asked, Lavi went to the forward of the boat and checked the water.

'Ah…it looks like we got caught on something…' He said.

'Can't we just push it off?' Allen asked.

'No, it looks like we got jammed into a crevasse or something…I think someone is gonna have to get off the boat and try to push.'

'Need a hand?' The stranger asked from the bank.

Allen gave it a bit of thought before replying, 'Ah…thank you, if you could.'

The stranger grinned and waded out into the water, the exorcists watched as he walked deeper and deeper into the water until it was at his chest level.

He was midway to the boat when he just disappeared beneath the water faster than anyone on the boat could react.

'What the…?' Lavi said shocked by what had happened

Then, there appeared a bulge in the water just a distance away, the bulge grew incredibly fast and burst open, revealing a towering monstrosity. Its head looked like a giant octopus with a set of fearsome red eyes, its body was humanoid in shape, with arms and legs, and in one of its eight tentacles from its head it held the small figure of the stranger.

Everyone was so inexplicably stunned by the sight that no one could really react, only when the monster raised one of its fists did Allen recover his senses and activated his innocence to protect his comrades, the other exorcists followed suit on seeing this.

The stranger saw this happen, while he had been stunned by the initial assault, he forced his right arm out of the grip of the tentacle, grabbed his sword, and sent a massive downward slash with it, slicing one of the monster's tentacles clean off.

The monster roared an incredible roar from the pain, causing him to stop his attack midway and make a grab for the stranger, he was too slow though, before he could close his hand the stranger launched himself off of it, then a pair of chains shot out of the sleeves of his coat, one pair grabbled the bank of the river and the other wrapped tightly around the boat which the exorcists sat on, jolting them, he retracted both sets of chains simultaneously, pulling himself in midair towards the bank while yanking the boat away from the monster on to the bank.

The stranger landed on his feet easily, the boat landed a little more harshly, giving the exorcists a hard bump, they clambered out a little unsteadily an prepared to face their enemy, then Allen realized something.

'My eye... It's…not activated…?' He said with his right hand over his left eye and with a confused expression.

'That's because it isn't an akuma…' The stranger replied darkly.

'Then what is it?' Lenalee asked shakily, she had not had to face anything else besides akuma and suddenly there was a totally new threat facing them that _wasn't_ what she was used too.

'Something _dark_…_evil_…straight from the pits of hell itself…' The stranger murmured quietly.

'…Then how do we fight it? We're not meant to deal with this kind of stuff!' Lavi said in a panicky voice.

'Does it really matter? What else can you do? _Prepare yourselves…_this will be the hardest fight you will have ever faced up to this point.' The stranger hissed as he got into a battle stance with his sword held high above his head, his left arm's index claw tracing the edge of the blade, and then everyone realized that his left arm was encased in a red claw gauntlet with gold colored joints.

But this didn't matter to the group all of them swallowed hard as the monster began advancing to them while roaring horribly, its tentacles waving and jumping about madly as it did so. It raised one of its fists high above its head and sent it crashing down towards the group of exorcists plus one.

Everyone jumped in all directions just before the massive fist came down, Lenalee grabbed Allen and took off, Lavi and bookman were snatched by Krory while the stranger leaped into the air, he grappled one of the monster's arms and swung himself up and over the monster's head, the monster was quick however, and swung his hand upwards to catch the stranger as he flipped over its head, the stranger was caught off guard and couldn't react, the monster plucked him from the air and tried to squeeze him while everyone looked in horror.

'Damn it!' Allen cursed as Lenalee held him in midair; he swung his gigantic claw forward with all his might, stretching and growing it until it slashed the monster. At the same time the stranger stabbed his sword with all his might into the monster's hand just before it closed around him.

The monster screamed and reeled from double blow by the exorcist and the stranger.

The stranger then raced up the arm of the monster, trying to get to its head before it could do anything, all of a sudden, a shadow loomed over him, as he looked up he jumped to the side just before the monster's other fist could come crashing down.

As he fell through the air, he was caught by Lenalee and the two landed on the opposite bank where the others had gathered.

'Damn! This thing is _huge_…!' Lavi remarked.

'But we can hurt it…! That's more important…' The stranger replied, he had been caught by surprise by how fast and intelligent the monster had been, and then he noticed that everyone was looking at him as the monster advanced on them.

'What…?' He asked.

'You know what that is, don't you…?' Bookman asked quietly, the stranger sort of nodded.

'Then how do we fight it?' He continued firmly.

The stranger looked at the faces of the exorcists before smirking and replying.

'All out attacks …take it from _every_ direction… and it won't be able to respond quickly enough.' He said while grinning.

Everyone nodded an agreement; they then turned to face the monster that was once again coming at them with all haste.

As the thing rushed forward and raised its fist for another strike, the stranger yelled, 'take out its legs!'

Lavi and Krory responded, Krory used all his strength to propel himself forward and strike one of the monster's knees as hard as he could, at the same time, Lavi increased his hammer's size and length exponentially and slammed it as hard as he could into the other knee.

This combined effort stopped the monster in its tracks but did not manage to do much damage to it, the monster gave an annoyed growl and kicked his legs and stomped angrily. The two exorcists barely avoided the attack.

Meanwhile, Lenalee carried Allen up into the air and behind the monster before throwing him up, , Allen turned his claw into a large cannon and pelted the back of the monster's head with his weapon as he fell, the monster cried and lashed out with one of his arms, the stranger caught Allen in one of his chains and yanked him out of the way and back to the ground before the arm connected, he then grappled the top of the monster's arm as it was recovering and allowed the monster to launch him into the air with a pull of his arm, the stranger drew the chain back and sent a powerful downward cut as he landed, severing part of the monster's arm from its body and spewing dirty green blood all over the place.

The others took the initiative now; they raced forward and attempted to topple the towering monster by attacking his legs, Krory battered them repeatedly with powerful blows, Lenalee unleashed the most devastating kicks she could while Lavi slammed monster's legs again and again with his hammer and bookman turned them into pincushions, Allen himself enlarged his arm, grabbed one of the monster's legs and tried to bring down the monster.

It worked somehow, the monster, staggered and howling mad from the pain of his lost arm, was caught off balance by the combined assault and was brought tumbling down with a massive 'boom' sounding as it crashed into the river an drew up a large wave on the shore.

The stranger grinned at this and jumped upwards as high as he could just as the monster started falling to earth. He flipped his body in midair and dove straight down towards the monster's neck as it fell; the monster seemed to bounce upwards a bit from the landing right before the stranger delivered the final slash which cleanly and completely decapitated the monster. The stranger staggered out of the water and onto the riverbank just as everyone witnessed something amazing, the monster's body, which lay still and barren, began to glow and hum ominously, the glow and the hum got gradually brighter and louder, finally ending with an incredible explosion of light that blinded everyone and sent a shockwave through the air, throwing everyone onto the ground.

When everyone had recovered and looked back at the river, the monster's body and head had disappeared completely, the only indication of a battle having taken place was the large crater on the opposing side of the river bank.

'Whoa…' Lavi panted, although the battle seemed to take an eternity, he knew that it likely lasted only slightly more than a dozen minutes.

'Yeah, that was intense…' Allen agreed.

'…What was that all about? What was it? What-' Lenalee was cut off by the stranger raising his hand and motioning for her to stop.

'It…was here for me…not you, you just happened to be in the way…That's why it targeted me first, it was probably sent to hunt me down and eliminate me or whatever.' He said.

'It wasn't an akuma, I'm not overly sure what it was, but I have a feeling as to where it came from, and it's not a pretty thought mind you…' He continued and trailed off.

'So then…What was it?' Allen echoed Lenalee's words.

'It was a pet, sent by his master who was likely a demon, and I'm not talking about the akuma that you face, not those demons, I'm talking about those things that you see in paintings, those horrendous looking, multi-headed things with sharp teeth surrounded by flames and torturing the damned souls of hell…yeah those demons.' Came the reply.

This revelation left the group speechless; they had not thought before that such things could actually exist.

'Although come to think of it, if such things like the Earl, Noah, innocence and dark matter exist…why shouldn't demons?' Lavi thought to himself.

'So…what happens now?' Allen questioned.

'You don't mention this, not a word of it to anybody; you won't speak of it except between yourselves, and you better as hell won't write it down anywhere…although considering who two of you are…' He trailed off again while staring at bookman and Lavi.

'One last thing, you will go about and carry out your original mission, and try _not _to think to hard about what you have just witnessed.' The stranger ended before he picked up his sword, sheathed on his back and prepared to move away.

'But…who are you? You're not normal right? Why don't you come join us at the order? You fight the earl as well don't you?' Allen asked, trying to be friendly.

The stranger turned around and gave him an odd look before saying,

'Allen Walker, this war is not just a war between the innocence and the earl, it is a war that encompasses the highest planes of existence…and the darkest pits of suffering, it is a war that has been around since the day in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve betrayed God by eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and introduced sin into humanity, your fight is only one part of this war…a war…for the fate of the human race itself…' The stranger said grimly as he walked off, leaving the group of exorcists in stunned silence.

'…What did he mean by…our fight is only one part of this war…?' Lavi said quietly.

'…We can only hope…that he isn't implying what I think he's implying…' Bookman said dourly, Allen gave him an odd look, but just as questions began to roll off his mouth he shut it just as quickly, something told him that now wasn't quite the time to start questioning as they returned to their original course, the stranger's words weighing heavily on their minds the whole time.

**Well that's done that I suppose, oh and I've realized that I'm actually not that different from most other Fanfic writers since I still go to bed at night wondering if there are any reviews or views of this piece of writing.**

**I'm trying my best to learn how to write fight scenes but it seems that it will be a rather steep learning curve; I'm really going to need to improve soon.**

**One more thing, how was the fight scene, I sorta just imagined it in my head and then described what happened. I hope it was ok though…**

**With that said however, reviews are still unnecessary, thanks for it if you do however.**

**Sorry but I won't list you if you do review, but you have my thanks nonetheless.**


	11. Chapter 10: Stranger Danger

**I sincerely apologize, I failed to inform you that I would be skipping on two updates because of an exam, but it's back to business as usual.**

**I actually intended for there to be 1-2 interceding chapters between the last and this, the first would've been about the one in the Himalayas where Allen and Krory got deceived by Lulubell, the other would be the part where Tyki destroys Allen's innocence. I scrapped the first because while I find the episode for it, it was in English and I didn't really like it for some reason, I scrapped the second because I felt it would be too short.**

**Don't own -man.**

**Chapter 10: Stranger Danger**

_Good things happen when you meet strangers.  
>-Yo-Yo Ma<em>

'Good evening…_earl_.' A familiar voice rang out from behind Lenalee.

Lenalee thought that she might've been dreaming; it seemed to have been forever since she had last heard that voice.

Allen Walker.

All of a sudden, a towering structure rose into the sky, attracting everyone's attention.

'What's that?' Marie wondered.

'The sky split open…?' Lavi said in shock.

At the same time, two long shadows appeared on the ground that reached out a very long distance, one shadow silhouetted the Earl, the other, a tall figure with a masquerade-like mask and a white cowl.

'Good evening, so we meet again…_Allen Walker!' _The Earl said with a rising tone, climaxing sharply on mentioning Allen's name.

Allen maintained a hold of the earl's hand and jumped forward, crashing headfirst into the Earl. The Earl responded quickly, generating a black energy ball in one of his hands and sending it crashing down on Allen while jumping backwards, Allen dodged and raced for the Earl. The Earl took a hold of Lero the umbrella and pulled the handle out, unsheathing a massive black broadsword with a white cross on the blade.

He attempted to slash Allen with it; Allen blocked the blow with his left innocence-arm.

'That appearance!' The Earl remarked excitedly on seeing Allen close up.

'You look like the 'whiteface clown' who picks on the 'Augusta clown'." He continued in the same tone.

'What a comical child you are…'He said as the two continued their fight.

They continued clashing repeatedly, dodging, parrying each other's blows and countering with their own. The fight remained completely stalemated. However, the earl made a single slip-up and let himself become open for just a moment; Allen took the opportunity and landed a direct Cross Grave attack straight onto the Earl, causing a small explosion.

When the smoke cleared however, the Earl was completely unharmed, he laughed.

'Ah…dammit looks like I took a hit…' The Earl remarked as he dusted himself off, Allen simply stared at him and waited for the next attack, the Earl laughed.

'Don't worry Allen! We shall continue another time.' He said cheerfully as he generated another black ball of energy and took aim.

Allen barely had time to realize where the Earl was aiming at: Lenalee. He had been so absorbed in his fight he had forgotten about her and had gotten separated from where her fallen form lay.

He raced back as fast as he could as the Earl charged up his attack.

'_Dammit! I'm not going to make it!' _Allen thought as he ran as hard as he could.

The Earl made his move, hurling the large spherical mass at the two exorcists. Halfway towards the intended target though, it exploded in a tremendous burst of smoke. Allen glanced back to see what had happened just as he reached Lenalee.

As the smoke cleared, there stood the stranger; he held his long sword in his right hand diagonally downwards and across his body, his gauntlet-ed left arm held the other end of the sword in a blocking sort of pose. His coat settled back down around him from the smoke cleared.

'You again? Why must you keep fouling up my plans and actions?' The Earl whined at the stranger, the stranger laughed.

'I'm a Schadenfreude Earl; I just _love_ it when I become the little spanner that stops all the gears.' He said with his tongue sticking out as he settled back into a more normal and upright pose.

'Well then…I guess I'll just have to _purge_ the system hmm…?' The Earl said in an annoyed tone.

'You're _more_ than welcome to try…' The stranger smirked.

The two suddenly dashed at each other at an incredible speed, so fast that they looked almost like a blur as their to swords, one large and broad, the other long and thin, clashed in a metallic ring and generated a small shockwave that resounded across the area.

The other combatants stopped for a moment to see the fight.

'…What?' Kanda wondered at the newcomer.

'Hey! Maybe you should be more concerned with yourself!' Tyki shouted as he jumped up and came crashing down on Kanda with his blades.

Kanda jumped to the side to dodge the attack before spinning around to retaliate.

Lavi and Marie could only spare a glance due to the powerful Noah that they faced.

General Tiedoll looked curiously at the fight as his summon decimated the large akuma.

Meanwhile the stranger and the Earl pushed against each other, eventually pushing each other away till their swords barely met the other's body, both raised their swords and clashed again and again, deflecting each other's blow. Parry, thrust, counter-parry, block, dodge…it all became so fast that Allen couldn't even follow the movements of their bodies or their arms, it was just a blurry mass of two people with their weapons clashing which generated sparks to indicate contact.

This lasted only a few short seconds though as finally, the stranger and the Earl became locked again. This time however, the stranger's strength prevailed as he swung a massive blow that spun the Earl and himself, as he spun, his sword glowed ominously red as he turned and jumped up, aiming a downward slash just as the Earl stabilized himself and held up his own sword to block.

The two weapons contacted in an incredible explosion that swept the entire field and engulfed everything. Lavi held up his hands in front of his face to shield himself from the dense cloud when he noticed a white shape with a mask appear in front of him.

'_Wha…? Is that an akuma?'_ He thought in surprise as the shape flipped over him and landed softly behind him.

'Lavi?' Allen shouted as he appeared, Allen had thought that since the stranger had been fighting the Earl, he was an ally and wanted to try and help before the stranger had struck the final blow.

'Did you see the Earl come here-'Allen began but was cut off.

'Wait up, Dammit!' A voice rang out.

A figure appeared out of the smoke and attempted to slash Allen, who barely got his left arm up to block in time.

'Kanda?' Allen said in shock.

Kanda was surprised at first, but got over his shock quickly.

'What's the meaning of this…?' He growled menacingly, his blade still on Allen's arm.

'That's what I should be asking you.' Allen replied with equal intent.

Kanda backed off before saying with an annoyed tone, 'I was chasing that Noah with the perm!'

'Hey Lavi, did you see him?' He asked.

'Huh? Oh yeah, that old macho guy I was fighting disappeared too…' Lavi replied with a confused voice.

'What's going on…? The Noah aren't anywhere to be seen…'

Kanda glared angrily at Allen who snarked back at him and this set off a row between the two, culminating in threatening to cut each other's hair off. Lavi tried to interrupt and calm the two down, they told him to shut up or be shaved bald.

'They probably escaped in that final blast…along with the Earl…' The stranger said as he appeared behind Lavi.

The three exorcists turned to look at him as he sighed and dropped his head, he then lifted it up and placed his sword on his back, Allen expected it to fall off but instead it simply stayed there as if floating in mid-air.

'What're you idiots looking at me for?' He asked as he turned his gaze on them, something flashed out of the corner of his eye, he caught Kanda's blade in his gauntlet right before it touched him, he turned to face the exorcist.

'Who the hell are you?' Kanda asked threateningly.

'..Do you greet everyone this way or…?' The stranger asked without replying to the question

'Answer the damn question.' Kanda growled.

The stranger grinned; he gripped the blade with his claw gauntlet and to trio's astonishment, forcibly put it aside against Kanda's own strength. He then turned to the other two exorcists.

'We should find some shelter, for your pals to rest.' He said looking to where the small group of people remained protected by Miranda's innocence.

'They look pretty banged up; I see something in the distance, unless you wanna stay out in the open.' He said as began to walk off to a few shapes far off, along the way, he stooped to pick up a large sling bag on the ground.

Allen shrugged and looked at Lavi, 'I'll take Lenalee, and you go and get the others.'

'Right.' Lavi answered.

Meanwhile, within Noah's Ark, the Earl dragged the two Noah along as Tyki complained that the battle had been getting fun, even reminding the Earl that the girl could've been the innocence heart, the Earl paid him no mind and simply commented on how heavy the two were.

At this point, Road appeared from a balcony and told the Earl that they had 4 more hours until the download was finished.

'Oh my, keep up the good work on the program Road.' He praised

'You gonna let them go?' Tyki asked.

'Of course not.' The Earl replied.

'Thought not.' Tyki mused as he took another long drag on his cigar.

'Your "job" has come back as well.' The Earl said suddenly.

'Seriously? He's alive? And his left arm?' Tyki shouted in shock.

'Alive and kicking, and he made a splendid interference along with the other guy.' The Earl affirmed.

'_Oh man…'_ Tyki thought quietly.

'Where's Lero?' Road asked as she jumped onto the earl.

'Tyki's worthlessness.' The Earl replied.

'Oh…?' Road said as she noticed something, she slid down the back of the Earl on her belly until her nose was just above Tyki's head.

'Tyki, did you change cigarette brands?' She asked.

'Why the sudden change in topic. No I haven't.' Tyki replied as he looked up at her.

'…Oh, really…' Road said as she spied a shadow at the corner of her eyes that vanished quickly.

'Oh yes Earl, how's our new guy shaping up?' Tyki asked.

'Quite good actually, with his help; we might be rid of that nuisance for good.'

'And if he fails?' Tyki asked.

'Then we will have lost nothing, except maybe the time lost on him.'

Somewhere in Noah's Ark. A young man brooded silently.

'_Patience.' _He thought to himself

'_I will get my hands on that bastard, and I. Will. Make. Him. Suffer for all the pain he has caused me…'_

Elsewhere, the Noah twins Jasdero and Devit stared at a small house, in front of the house was a chicken wearing the General Cross's hat and several empty bottles of wine with a half full cup of wine.

'Where's cross…?' Jasdero asked meekly.

'FIND HIM!' Devit hollered at the top of his voice as the two began firing wildly into the house.

Back in Edo, the motley group of exorcists and normal people plus one had found shelter under a ruined bridge. They first laid the unconscious Lenalee to rest before General Tiedoll began discussing what he had been doing.

'I only came to Japan to find more innocence users; I don't have any interest in aiding that man.' Tiedoll said of Cross.

'He only thinks other than himself as tools you know, you were supposed to be his guard, but both he and the modified akuma used you as decoys, understand?' Tiedoll explained.

'Yes.' Bookman answered.

'We came anyway after receiving his warning; it's pretty much what we expected…' Bookman continued.

Tiedoll nodded before continuing, 'Currently, the only exorcists in the world are Hevlaska, Sokaro, Klaud, Marian and the nine of us here.'

'That's why I don't think this is the time to fight the Millennium Earl. Rather, I believe it's your duty as disciples to survive until that time really comes. Perhaps Cross's squad should be withdrawn from the battlefield.' He said.

'Correction General.' Bookman said, his voice now hushed, Tiedoll looked up in surprise.

'There is a tenth member of this group.' He replied, nodding towards the stranger who was leaning against the wall at the back of their shelter not too far from where they were sitting, his eyes were apparently closed and his chin rested on his chest, he was apparently resting, his sling bag was placed on the ground beside him.

Tiedoll sighed, 'I don't know about him, he may seem to be an ally, but we don't know who he really is or why he's here…he's an unknown quantity.'

If the stranger heard them, he gave no indication of it.

'But still,' Bookman continued, 'he fights against the Earl and with skill and strength too.'

'I wouldn't get too close to him if I were you…' The General said.

'I don't know how to explain, but he radiates some kind of presence, a powerful presence, but also-dare I say-an almost evil sort of presence, he is certainly a capable warrior, but only time will tell where his allegiances lie…and he could do with better friends.' Tiedoll made the last remark as a crow hopped a short distance away, clearly unafraid of the humans, the rest of the flock had gathered at the edge of the top of the bridge, staring at the rest of the group.

Bookman chuckled at the last part, 'Do you think we could go up to him and ask him?'

Tiedoll smiled thinly before saying, 'Do you want to try to ask him yourself?'

The group looked at the stranger; once again he gave no indication of having heard what they had been talking about.

Meanwhile, Allen had been sitting beside the sleeping Lenalee, at this moment; she opened her eyes slowly and found herself staring at Allen.

'Lenalee.' Allen said softly on seeing her eyes open.

'…Allen…?' She said quietly.

'Yeah…I'm sorry. I'm sorry Lenalee…' He said smiling brightly.

Unbeknownst to the group, who were still engaged in their conversations, the stranger lifted his head and opened his crimson eyes, in the dark of the shadows they seemed to almost burn with an incredible power, he pushed himself of the wall, grabbed his bag and started walking towards the awoken Lenalee, he stopped halfway to listen to her

'Why do you need to apologize…?' She said as she lifted one hand to caress Allen's cheek.

'If this is about Suman…you've saved him Allen.' She continued as Allen gaped at her.

'He didn't die in vain. Suman's heart must have surely been saved by you.' She said as she sat up.

'Welcome back Allen.' She finished as a tear formed in Allen's eye.

'Back…I'm back Lenalee…' He said as the tear rolled down his cheek

Almost in response the stranger rolled his eyes as he began walking to her again.

'And the both of you are so sweet it's making me nauseous…' He said out loud as he reached them.

By this point, Lavi and Chaoji had gathered around the two. The stranger's words snapped both out of their dreamy stupor and made everyone face him.

Ignoring the glares he was being sent, the stranger reached inside his bag and pulled out some clothing.

'If it helps,' he said as he took it out and let it unfurl itself as he held it, 'I have what remains of him.'

Lenalee gasped, 'that's…that's _Suman's_ uniform, where did you get it?' She asked deftly as the stranger handed it to her.

'I got it from the couple who took him in after his fight with the Noah…at least there's something for you guys to bury…' He explained.

'I…thank you very much…' Lenalee said as she cradled the uniform close to her body.

The stranger tilted his head to the side '…Don't mention it…' He remarked, he truned away when Lenalee spoke again.

'What's your name?' She asked.

The stranger turned around and stared at her.

'…What's it to you?' He inquired with a raised eyebrow.

'Everyone must have a name, something which represents them, so what's yours?' She continued innocently.

The stranger's expression took a surprise shift to all; his normally dead and dull look was replaced with a thin and sad smile and his cold unblinking gaze softened

'_My name fits me all too well, I still don't know why exactly…but perhaps if I…' _He thought.

'Drake…just call me drake…' His smile dissolved and the dull expression resumed and he turned away.

'Drake…Drake…it's a nice name.' She said.

'_Really_…' Drake said with his back turned.

'Hey-' Allen said with annoyance but was cut off when a purple circle with a black star in the center formed beneath Lenalee and pulled her in.

'Wha…?' Allen said in shock.

Surprised by the sudden light, Drake spun around and saw what had happened as Lenalee's raised hand just disappeared into the circle.

'_Oh fuck._' He swore mentally.

'LENALEE!' Allen cried as he reached into the circle and was pulled in as well.

'Allen!' Lavi shouted as he attempted to reach for the disappearing exorcist.

'It's Lee they're after!' Tiedoll cried as the circle flared into a bright light, Chaoji immediately tried to reach for the fast disappearing Lavi and was pulled in as well, Kanda and Krory dashed into the light, ignoring the Generals calls to stop.

'_Damn! Guess I got no choice.'_ Drake thought as he left his bag where it was and ran into the light as it exploded into smoke.

While the remainder reeled from the sudden disappearance of the others, someone shouted.

'What is that? There's something weird up in the sky!' One of the humans asked.

In the sky outside, a massive white cube had formed.

'Dear god…such a thing is…'

'What the hell is that thing?'

At this point, Bookman began murmuring in an unknown language, Miranda noticed this.

'_Bookman…he's saying something…what language is that?' _She wondered.

All of a sudden, Bookman raised his head and said, 'Noah's Ark…has appeared.'

_Inside the ark…_

'_I'm falling…' _Drake thought, and then he saw the others_._

'_Correction…_we_ are falling.' _He said.

He instinctively shot out a chain from his sleeve, anchored to the ground and pulled himself away from the rest of the falling group.

They all landed in the same spot with Allen forced to support their combined weight above Lenalee.

They picked themselves up and Allen and Kanda chose right then to argue about why they were in the Ark once Allen realized it.

Drake meanwhile, surveyed his surroundings; he felt an intense feeling from deep inside him.

'_He's here…and he's waiting for me…' _Drake thought bemusedly.

Elsewhere in the ark, a dark figure rose from the floor on which he had been brooding.

'It's time…' He muttered.

**Done, thanks for the story favorites and the reviews see you next week! (Or in a few days if I manage to find time to write.)**

**And the stranger's name has been revealed; of course it's not his full name, that'll be in the future.**


	12. Chapter 11: The Ark

**I am so very very sorry, my laptop just **_**had**_** to crash on me last Wednesday and I had to wait till a few days ago before it was repaired and I got it back, meanwhile I could've used my computer but didn't feel like it, so so very very sorry.**

**So…I wasn't able to update a second time in a week…oh well I'm damn busy for some stupid, ridiculous, nonsensical reason so I can't update…sorry.**

**I don't own D. gray-man**

**Chapter 11: The Ark**

_A friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else."  
>-Proverb<em>

'_So…this is the ark…' _Drake thought to himself as he surveyed his surroundings while Allen and Kanda bickered, he hadn't thought to himself much as to whether or not he ought to have simply jumped in, but it seemed that he would have an objective now.

'_So long…still so impulsive…guess that's just part and parcel of being human isn't it?'_ He thought to himself.

'_Well…_half_ a human…' _He allowed himself a small smile at that thought.

Meanwhile, Lavi helped Lenalee of the floor and discovered something underneath her.

'H-Hey! There's some weird pumpkin under Lenalee!' He called out, just then, Lero awoke.

'Move Lero, you damn exorcists!' It moved up and shouted at the group.

'_It talked!' _Lavi thought in shock, at that point, Allen and Kanda noticed Lero, they immediately brandished their weapons on it in a very angry and threatening manner.

'It's you…' They said dangerously, Lero screamed in fright at the sight as the two demanded to be released before admitting that there wasn't an exit.

Suddenly, Lero glowed brightly and the Millennium Earl's voice was heard booming.

'This ship has completed the role it's held for many years and has been put to a stop.' He said.

'Nice job Lero, it's time for departure young exorcists! Both you and this ship will go on a one-way voyage to hell!' He shouted as a balloon shaped figure of the Earl burst out of Lero and began floating up into the sky.

Right as he said that, the wondrous buildings all around the group began to crumble and collapse, much to everyone's shock.

'Be careful, the places that have been downloaded have begun to collapse.' He said in a sing-song voice.

'Huh?' Lavi said, perplexed.

'What do you mean…?' Kanda asked quietly.

'This ship will shortly be sucked in between dimensions and disappear. To describe it on a level of science you can understand…3 more hours is all the time you have left in this world.' He explained in the same tone of voice.

'Cute little lady, you have many good friends…' He continued as the impression of him floated higher and higher.

'So many of them have come for you, all of them will be going with you…even that wretch of man who keeps-' The Earl of cut off when a knife shot out of nowhere and burst the balloon.

Everyone turned to see Drake with an outstretched arm.

'Shut up Earl…you talk _way_ too much…and that's another one of my knives gone…oh well…' He muttered the last part to himself.

As this was going on, on the ground below, the rest of the group identified a large group of 20 to 30 of the giant akuma, they made preparations to battle while an innocence shard from General Tiedoll's bag left and flew to the ark.

In the ark, Lavi smashed through another house as Allen explained that he had found a house with a door that led outside the ark.

'Impossible Lero! This ship has stopped Lero! Like I've been saying, it's not connected to outer dimensions anymore. There's seriously no ex-.' It was cut off when Allen Kanda and Lavi gave it a blow from their fists.

'LOOK OUT!' Lenalee cried out all of a sudden as the very ground they stood on heaved upwards and broke apart.

'There's none Lero, I'm telling the truth, you can't get out of this ship. You're all going to die here Lero.' It reiterated to the group, but then a second voice spoke up.

'There is an exit…if it's just an exit you want…Little boy'

''_Whose voice is that?'_ Allen wondered as a hand holding a key appeared beside him, he turned around and came face to face with the same person he'd played-and cheated-poker with to get back Krory's clothing, the one with thick glasses, he was smoking a cigarette.

'…THICK GLASSES!' Allen, Lavi and Krory screamed in his face.

'Eh? Is that my name?' He replied with a surprised tone.

'W-w-w-why? What are you doing here?' Allen shouted.

'Hey…' Kanda said.

'That guy's radiating blood thirst…' He said.

'He sure is…' Drake said stepping forward with his eyes flashing demonically, '…_Noah.'_

'Boy…' The man grinned wildly as he took the cigar out of his mouth with one hand and grabbed Allen's head.

'Why are you still…?' He continued as he turned Allen to face him.

'Alive!' He shouted suddenly and headbutted Allen hard on his forehead.

'Because of you, I had to put up with everything the Earl and those midgets said to me…' He said as Allen clutched his forehead in pain.

'Just say what you have to say Tyki.' Drake said firmly in an annoyed voice.

Tyki shifted back in to his Noah form and said, 'You want an exit right? I can give you one.'

'This ship doesn't have an exit anymore…but another one can be made through Road's ability.' Tyki said as he stuck out his tongue at the exorcists, as he said that, a door resembling the one that Allen had seen in Miranda's town.

Everyone except for Drake gaped in astonishment as Tyki continued explaining.

'Our Road is the only Noah who can move through space without using the ark. So how about it? Let's continue our match on the train. This time, I'll be betting my "exit" against your "lives".'

'No cheating this time little boy.' Tyki said as Lero vehemently protested but went unheard.

'This is the key that can open Road's door as well as the 3 doors that lead to it.' He said as a tower began collapsing onto right where he was standing.

'Think about it, though you don't have the free time to waste gambling.' He finished as the tower dropped and fell right on top of him, much to everyone's shock, Kanda however noticed something and caught it out of thin air, he opened his palm to look at it and saw that it was the key.

'Hunting for exorcists…is pretty fun; I'll place the door on top of the tallest building, if you get to the door before it crumbles, then you win.' Tyki said.

'I heard that the Noah are immortal, how is this playing fair?' Allen countered as Tyki walked right through the collapsed tower and out the other side, the Noah burst out into an epic fit of laughter.

'Sorry about that,' He said as he calmed himself, 'I don't know how it happened myself…but we are still humans too boy, we only look immortal because you guys are weak!' He shouted out the last part as he began walking away.

'Oh…and as to your "friend" there…' He stopped mid-step, 'Don't keep your pal waiting, he getting quite twitchy.'

'…If you see him again, tell him I'm on my way.' Drake said maliciously after a pause.

'Hmph…ok.' Tyki answered and with that, walked away.

Out of the blue, the ground began to heave and crumble again, shocking everyone.

'Shit run! To a safer area!' Kanda shouted.

Everyone ran for it, Lenalee however could not move fast enough and was caught in the collapse, Allen noticed however and spun around to grab her and caught her in his arms just as his piece of ground collapsed, he leapt from piece to falling piece like stepping stones, however there were too few and he began to fall.

'Crap!' He shouted as he fell.

Drake saw this, spun on his heel and shot a pair of chains from under the long sleeves of his long coat, the chains wrapped around the two and pulled them to the safety of solid ground.

'Thank you.' Allen said as he landed.

Drake simply shrugged and turned away, walking back to the rest of the group who were trying to catch their breath, Drake watched as Allen and Lenalee rejoined the group before he spoke up.

'He's right you know…the Noah.'

'How exactly?' Allen asked.

'Underneath all of the flashy lightshows and abilities, they're bodies are just as weak as a regular humans, they are still flesh, bone and blood, just a little harder to kill than the average human due to all the dark matter powers and abilities.' He answered.

'Well that aside…what do we do now?' Lavi asked as he wiped the sweat from his face

'We can't keep running forever, if what the Earl said is true-.' He was cut off by Drake

'There is no "if" really…we're his mortal enemies, I'm sure he'd shorten it to a millisecond if he could, but he can't, so we need to use that wisely…somehow.' Drake said.

'2 hours left Lero.' Lero said.

'2 hours…not a lot of time, we can't waste anymore.' Drake remarked.

'Both of us are familiar with Road's ability to move through space.' Allen spoke up.

'Yeah.' Lenalee agreed.

'So there's no other choice huh?' Lavi said with resignation.

'ROCK! PAPER! SCISSORS!' Allen, Lavi and Kanda shouted.

Allen lost; he was therefore directed to use the key on a door.

Despite a certain amount of reluctance and fear, Allen used the key and turned the lock of a nearby door.

To Everyone's bewilderment, the door exploded into color, it was decorated with rainbows, the sun, stars and a butterfly.

'Rainbows and butterflies, a funny person must live here…' Drake said with amusement.

Turning away from the door and to everyone else, Allen held out his hand, 'We're definitely getting out of here.' He said with determination.

Everyone agreed and placed their hands on his own, that is, everyone except…

'Kanda?' Allen asked.

'No way am I doing that.' He said angrily.

'Thought so.' Allen remarked

And…

'Drake?' Allen asked the dark clothed figure, Drake turned to face him.

'What?' He asked.

'Are you…?' Allen asked.

'Yeah yeah we'll all make it back and we'll all live happily ever after in Neverland where there'll be big rainbows and sunbeams and cute ponies and flowers and where there'll be no troubles to face and no evils to fight now will you quit stalling and _hurry up_?' He rattled off in an annoyed tone.

'Jeez…no need to be so negative about it.' Lavi muttered.

Together, the group entered the doorway and stepped into a whole new world. The room they entered was massive, the floor of the room was rocky with piles of earth rocks sitting all around, and the ceiling was painted with numerous crescent moons and stars and clouds.

'Is this the children's room?' Drake asked with a raised eyebrow.

'It's definitely not outside…' Lavi remarked.

Something caught Kanda's eye and he turned to face it, Allen noticed it.

'Kanda?' He asked.

'Sh, quiet.' Kanda replied.

'He's here…' He continued while nodding at a bulky and dark figure in the distance.

The figure approached the group silently, eventually revealing a massive and buffed up person with a large coat, spiky hair and a crazed grin.

'Go ahead without me guys.' Kanda said out of the blue.

'EH?' most of the group responded.

'He's the one after our general, so I've already met him a few times.' He responded.

'We can't leave you here on your own Kanda!' Lenalee protested.

'Don't get me wrong, I'm not doing this for you guys, I told you, he's after our general.' Kanda said sternly before his tone shifted.

'I'm cutting him up to complete my mission.' He said fiercely as he drew his sword.

'You guys go on ahead…I'll deal with him.' Kanda said, the Noah was now just some distance away.

All of a sudden, there was a tremendous shaking.

'It's an earthquake…' Allen commented.

'This proves it; we're still in the ark!' Lavi said with a bit of panic.

'Exactly Lero…This is just a room that has yet to be uploaded into the new ark yet Lero. As soon as that's done, it'll be gone Lero!' Lero explained.

'I'll stay too Kanda!' Allen suddenly shouted out loud.

'I want the rest of you to find the next door and go through it when you see the chance! We'll catch up-.'He was cut off by Kanda.

'The two of us together? You've got to be joking.' He said with his back turned.

'Kan-.' Allen tried to reply but was cut off for the second time in a row.

'He's right Allen, the main group here kinda needs you, you're the next most capable exorcist and you're needed for the final fight against Tyki, if anyone wants to stay it has to be someone other than you.' Drake said.

'What about you? You're pretty capable yourself.' Allen retorted.

'I'm seeking to finish some "unfinished" business, you already heard Tyki mention my "pal" right? I'm not overly confident I will survive, that's why you need to stay with the group the entire way.' Drake explained.

'Besides, Kanda seems quite capable, I'm sure he can manage, right Kanda?' Drake said, turning to face Kanda, he received no response.

'Aaaannnnnddd I don't think he'll be appreciative of any help…so…let's go.' Drake finished

'But still…' Allen said.

'You're all annoying…Get lost! Kaichu Ichigen!' Kanda shouted and with a swing of his blade, unleashed a swarm of hellish looking insects.

There was much terror and panic as everyone except Drake screamed as they were beset upon by the insects and once they evaporated into the air, began screaming at Kanda.

'YUU KANDA YOU ASS!' Allen hollered.

'ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US IDIOT!' Lavi screamed.

'YOU DEMON!' Chaoji wailed.

'YOU UNGRATEFUL BASTARD!' Krory Bawled.

'Y-you guys…Kanda.' Lenalee said quietly.

'THAT'S IT! WE'RE LEAVING KANDA BEHIND!' Allen exclaimed angrily and marched off while making a few more angered comments, followed by the rest of them after Lenalee made Kanda promise that he would go after them.

'I'm so proud of you.' Drake smirked at Kanda.

'Do you want to be next?' Kanda glared at him, Drake simply narrowed his crimson eyes at the violent exorcist.

'…Hmph, as if you could ever.' He muttered silently and headed off with the rest of the group.

'Hey, hey.' The Noah said.

'I don't know what you're saying…' He began crackling and glowing.

'But you guys…are noisy!' A golden armor burst forth from his skin and enshrouded his body, covering him in a shiny gold colored sort of material with spikes and large, sharp growths on his back.

Allen and Lavi glanced back to see the development, they very much wanted to join in, but were prevented by their own knowledge that it was necessary.

'Here I go…' Kanda muttered coldly as he covered his sword and scabbard in a coat of energy to dual wield them, and then launched his attack.

Allen looked back at the fight, 'Kanda, if you don't come after us I'll make you regret it!' He hissed to himself.

'Sir Exorcists, there's another building this way!' Chaoji called out, pointing out a tall structure I the distance.

Krory unlocked the door with the key and the group headed in.

They ended up in a long and high corridor, all except one of them.

'Hey where's Drake?' Lenalee asked. It was hard to miss the very tall, clothed in black person.

'Huh? Hey you're right! Where'd he go?' Lavi wondered.

_Elsewhere…_

Drake stepped into a strange darkness, it was really strange because while it was pitch dark, he could see his hands in front of his face clearly and the darkness almost seemed to be moving and shifting.

A deep voice rang out, 'Do you remember me Drakkensward?' It hissed angrily.

Drake paused for a moment before a malicious grin spread across his face, 'How could I? _Judisious Hawkes_.'

**See you again next week, I hope very much that I will be able to update soon and thank you for reading and reviewing.**

**I also typed this out in 1 day whereas I usually take 2 days, so pardon me for any mistakes.**

**Note: it's pronounced Drake-en-sword, for the other guy: Joo-dis-ious Hawk-s.**

**Any resemblance to anyone else on the internet is purely coincidental, real life? Err…a bit.**


	13. Chapter 12: Darkness of The Void

**Thankfully, I did not have too much to worry about so I was able to bring you another chapter, I may have to skimp on another update but I'm not too sure yet.**

**Oh, and this chapter has some gore at the end when one kills the other, but it's not to icky trust me, and you won't get nightmares because I too tend to be grossed out by this sort of stuff.**

**One more thing, there'll be flashbacks in this one, they are marked with **_**italics**_**.**

**Don't own D gray-man.**

**Chapter 12: Darkness of the void**

_A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.  
>-C.S. Lewis<br>_

_Back in the corridor…_

Everyone looked all around, searching for Drake.

'Did he go back to help Kanda?'Allen asked.

'No, he was right behind me!' Lenalee answered in a panic, she didn't want to lose her newest friend.

'Maybe he doubled back?' Chaoji asked.

'No, he definitely entered in with me!' Lenalee insisted.

'Well then where could he be?' Lavi wondered.

'In any case, I think we should keep going.' Allen said.

'What? But we can't leave him-.' Lenalee protested but was cut off.

'We don't even know where he went! And I have a feeling that he will turn up sooner or later…' Allen remarked.

While the main group was wondering what should be done…

_In a separate room…_

Drake smirked upon his opponent's confirmation of identity even as he was still surrounded by the almost "living" darkness.

Then, the darkness began to drain away and pool into a small area, granting Drake the sight of the rest of the room, it was rather dull, although fairly large, it was a plain rectangular room with grey walls and square tiles on the floor, he stood at one end of the room, the darkness was pooling to the other end until it stood up and formed a vaguely human shape, and then the shape materialized skin, clothing and a face.

Drake narrowed his eyes at the figure that had formed; he had a rectangular face with a pair of deep-set brown eyes, a square chin, short brown hair, he was dressed in a Tang-Zhuang and had a slight Asian look. His fierce eyes bored holes through Drake.

Drake rolled his eyes, 'I suppose I shouldn't bother asking why I'm here?'

Hawke didn't respond, keeping his cold, dark, angry eyes on Drake, he lifted his finger and pointed at Drake, 'For 2000 years I waited, for 2000years I suffered; now I will turn it all on you in 2 minutes.'

_Flashback, 2000 years prior…_

_Drake and Hawke stared at each other on a small road, torrential rain poured over them as they glared at one another._

_Drake spoke first 'Quit this madness Hawke! You're not getting anywhere with it!'_

'_Oh but I _am_ getting somewhere! Your eventual death!' He shouted._

'_Stop moaning about it! She chose me! Now get over it! What would she say if she saw you now? What about your little brother and sister huh? What about them?' Drake hurled back._

'_No! …No! You ruined my life, you took away everything! I could've had it all! And you took everything!' Hawke screamed._

'_So? That's it? You just give up? You're a sorry excuse for a person Hawke!' Drake railed._

'_No…if I can just kill you…then I will have proven that I'm stronger than you, and then she _will_ love me.' Hawke said defiantly._

_Drake glared at him, 'What kind of twisted logic is that? If you kill me she'll love you? The only way _anyone_ will love you now is if you stop this shit right now!'_

'_No, you've been the cause of _all_ of my problems, if I can kill you, everything will be alright again.' Hawke laughed madly._

_Drake cringed at that, 'you're insane…I guess I have no choice then…' Drake unsheathed both of his katanas and ran straight at Hawke._

_End_

'The only problem is that I won't be able to savor your pain…oh well, I guess this'll have to do.' Hawke said as he held out his hand, the shape of a black double-edged Chinese sword formed and then materialized in his hand, he caught it and swung it from side to side dangerously.

'Question: I was pretty sure I killed you, how come you're still here?' Drake quipped.

'…That's a secret you won't live to find out, I spent the last 2000 years nursing my hatred, waiting for the opportunity to take you down knowing someone would eventually seek an assassin.' Hawke smiled creepily.

Drake gave a sad smile at that, 'Then you've wasted slightly more than half of those years.'

Hawke looked confused, 'What…?'

'Claire is dead Hawke.' Drake said quietly, Hawke's eyes went wide.

'Stop trying to trick me you infernal demon! I am going to rip you apart piece by piece until your blood stains every corner of this room!' He howled angrily and charged at Drake.

'Believe what you wish…' Drake muttered as he grabbed his own sword from his back with his right hand, it's long, gleaming black and red blade flashing dangerously as he ran at Hawke, the two blades collided in a mini shockwave that shook the room.

Drake's blade was much longer, enabling him to fight Hawke from a longer distance the two swung their blades repeatedly at each other, slashing and deflecting each other attacks, however, Drake gradually begin to push Hawke back, his longer reach forcing Hawke to back to prevent from being overwhelmed. However, the length of Drake's blade made it a bit unwieldy even with its lightness, as a result, Drake left himself open for just a split second.

Hawke took advantage of that, jumping forward and thrusting his blade at Drake, Drake was surprised by the move and leapt backwards to give himself enough room, Hawke continued his attack, charging forward, Drake thrust his own blade forward and the tips of the 2 blades clashed together perfectly, the 2 fighters held it there for a moment, pushing against each other while the tips of the blades glowed fiercely.

Both pushed equally hard, Drake's strength prevailed however, and he pushed Hawke backwards while swinging his sword to the left, the move unbalanced Hawke, as he tried to recover, Drake rushed forward with his right hand holding his sword tightly and his right arm still crossed over his body from the first move, Hawke raised his sword in an attempt to block but Drake ran his left claw gauntlet over his blade just as he was slashing, empowering it and making it glow red, he unleashed and absolutely devastating blow which smashed Hawke's sword to pieces and threw Hawke against the wall.

Drake ran at full speed to deliver the final blow, he homed straight on Hawke's heart and drove the blade in.

Hawke made a gasp and a gurgling sound while grabbing the blade before slumping over and going limp, Drake raised his eyebrows and kept his blade firmly in place, and then he noticed something:

There was no blood on his sword.

Hawke began to giggle, and then laugh as Drake raised an eyebrow at him. Hawke disintegrated into a dark matter which flowed around Drake, and flew to the other side of the room where it coalesced into Hawke who laughed at him.

'Did you really think it would be as easy as the previous time hm? Just thrust your sword into your opponent and that was that?' He sneered at Drake.

'Well I doubted it would be _that_ easy anyway.' Drake replied, _'Wonder what Hans would say about this…' _He thought to himself.

Hawke laughed as he held out his hand, the hilt of the broken sword flew towards him and he grabbed it out of mid-air, the rest of the blade formed itself back into its original shape and became a whole sword again, there weren't even any visible cracks.

'How'd you like that _demon?' _He snarled.

'This is gonna be harder than I thought…' Drake muttered to himself.

Both fighters ran at each other again, once again they clashed, deflecting and parrying each other's blows, this time however, Hawke forced Drake's blade to the ground and used it as leverage to launch himself into the air in an arc and aim for Drake with both his arms holding onto the sword to deliver what he thought would be the final blow.

Drake was caught off guard; he knew he couldn't raise his own sword in time to block, so he dropped it altogether and when Hawke brought the blade down on him, he held out his claw gauntlet and caught it in his hand and held it there.

Hawke was stunned by this move, 'Wha…?'

Drake gave him no time to respond, he clenched his right fist and sent it straight at Hawke's stomach, Hawke was stunned by the blow but kept a firm grip of his sword, Drake retracted his fist and dealt a second punishing blow before grabbing Hawke's head, lifted his knee and slammed his head into it. Hawke reeled from the triple blow; Drake wrenched his weapon by the blade free and slammed the hilt into Hawke's head.

Hawke staggered backwards but to Drake's shock, he recovered in an instant and lunged forward, somehow a knife appeared in his hand and he went straight for Drake, Drake was so surprised he didn't move fast enough and a screaming pain tore itself through his body starting from his chest, he didn't falter however, he drew one of his throwing knifes from his sleeves and slashed Hawke across the cheek with it.

Both combatants staggered apart from each other, Drake pulled the blade free from his chest while Hawke clutched his slashed cheek. They waited as they tried to catch their breath, both their weapons were some distance away, it would be worthless to try to run for them, so both combatants faced each other.

'This is just like how it ended all those years ago…isn't it.' Drake remarked.

Hawke simply glared at him, as if memories of his first death were resurfacing.

_Flashback_

_Drake and Hawke rolled around in the mud, each trying to get a proper grip on the other's throat, both had their knives drawn and were trying to get into a position to use them properly, however, Hawke's bulk and size overpowered the thinner Drake's frame and soon held both his hands on Drake's throat, both their knives had been discarded._

'_I'm going to enjoy every second of this!' Hawke laughed madly as he squeezed harder._

_Drake gurgled and spluttered, trying to get a handle on Hawke when a past memory from training clicked in his mind, with all his remaining strength he aimed a blunt hit right at Hawke's neck, right near where he guessed the location of the trachea was._

_He slammed it as hard as he could; Hawke was off of him almost instantly, clutching and grasping at his own neck. Drake was dazed from the strangulation and stood up shakily from the sudden flood of air into his lungs, he staggered over to where Hawke was and fell on him immediately, blow after blow after blow landed on Hawke's head, but Hawke refused to give up and continued struggling against Drake._

_Drake finally spied his knife lying in the mud close by, he rolled off Hawke, grabbed it, fell on Hawke again and started stabbing him repeatedly, wild, animalistic grunts of anger and pain were loosed from drake as he stabbed Hawke repeatedly, even after Hawke lay still it continued, until Drake's senses finally reached him and he staggered back from Hawke's body._

_End_

Drake remembered it all too well, he had killed up close before, but the kills had all been clean and precise, not wild and barbaric as Hawke's killing had been, it left a permanent stain on his mind after that, he could never forget the blood flowing everywhere and how it had been all over his hands, it gave him nightmares even today.

However, Hawke was speaking now, distracting Drake from his thoughts.

'My time is almost up, I guess I'll have to kill you now, it's too bad I couldn't have a bit more fun with you…oh well.' He grinned, suddenly, dark matter shot out from the back of his body, engulfing the whole room; the dark matter hardened into pointed tips and surrounded Drake.

'Any last words _demon_? After this I'll find Claire, and we'll both live happily ever after.' He grinned horribly, it confirmed Drake's main thought: Hawke was definitely insane, Drake had been surprised by the banter between him and Hawke, wondering if Hawke had managed to retain his sanity somehow, but that disappeared with that final remark.

'You're a loony…' Drake said simply.

'Loony? I'm no Loony! I will kill you and take back what was always, and is still, rightfully mine!' He shouted.

Just then, the ceiling of the room began cracking noticeably, as did the walls and the floor, Drake's eyes tracked the cracks on the ceiling as they started from one side of the room and continued over to the other side. Cracks split off from this main crack and began running all over the room, some joined together to cause some chunks to fall off.

'What the hell?' Hawke said as he looked up at the cracking, disintegrating ceiling as some large chunks began to fall towards him, the momentary distraction was all Drake needed, he sent all of his chains straight into Hawke's body at the same time, the sharp, arrow points of the chains went right through Hawke's body, and continued extending until they planted themselves into the walls of the room.

Hawke was so stunned by the move that he could only scream at first, blood poured out of the large wounds created by the chains, the hardened, pointed tips of darkness slowly disappeared. Drake walked forward calmly, knowing full well that he had won the battle.

Hawke continued to struggle defiantly while Drake looked at his bleeding, ruined body.

'Damn…you…demon…hope…you…burn in hell!' Hawke spluttered out.

'Coming from a person who going to die, you sure are defiant to the end…' Drake remarked.

Hawke looked at Drake, his cruel, angry, burning eyes registered nothing but hate, but at last, his fire began to dim, and soon enough, he was a limp and dead body hanging on chains.

'Let's make sure you're _really _dead this time.' Drake said as his eyes glowed.

Drake didn't so much as flinch or even twitch when he retracted and straightened out all of his chains at the same time, the result was devastating, Hawke's body was ripped to pieces in an instant with a gut-wrenching and terrifying snap, pieces of his body hung all over Drake's chains, arms, parts of the torso, legs, his blood was splayed all over the floor and the wall behind him.

'Who'd you say you were going to rip apart piece by piece again?' Drake taunted.

Drake fully retracted his bloodied chains back into his long coat and surveyed the mess he'd created, then a searing pain hit him, he cried out and fell to the ground. He hissed and covered the wound in his side as more and more of the room gave way into the darkness. He spied the door at the back of the room, he grabbed his sword, using at a support and limped as fast as he could for the door, but the searing pain and exhaustion from the fight hampered him, he almost slipped and fell on the bloody floor but was able to regain his balance in time.

However, with the door barely a dozen meters away, it began to crack and fall apart.

Drake watched with shock as the door crumbled and disappeared, he was now trapped in a room that was being wiped out and destroyed, and the only exit had just been removed. He fell to the floor, weak, exhausted and bleeding from his fight, he stared upwards and the cracking ceiling.

'_So…is this how it all ends?'_ Drake smirked as the walls crumbled around him, the ceiling fell apart and came crashing down on him and the floor beneath him gave way and he fell into the endless darkness.

**The entire thing consisted mainly of a fight scene; I don't have a lot of experience writing them so I hope it was ok for you guys.**

**Do tell me if it was alright, if not I'll just keep writing bad ones without knowing it.**

**I actually thought that this chapter would be shorter due to it mainly being a fight scene, but the inclusion of the 2 flashbacks made it far longer than it thought it would, but future fights will be shorter due to the absence of all the memories between combatants.**

**A bit on the weapons the two are using: **

**Drake is using a 2 meter long (about 6 feet 7) katana-like sword. Its blade has a black cutting edge with a blood red back; the hilt of the sword is dark gray with a strange design on the grip.**

**Hawke is using a Qin dynasty era **_**"jian"**_** double edged straight sword. Its blade is totally black with a purple line running down the middle; the hilt is a violet color.**

**As you can see, I've made this a **_**very **_**poor match up in turns of weapons since Drake's weapon obviously dominates Hawke's.**


	14. Chapter 13: Return

**Well I'm back, it's a new chapter, but sadly, June's coming to an end…damn.**

**Don't own D. Gray-Man.**

**Chapter 13: Return**

"_Family is essential because we all yearn to feel like we belong to something greater than ourselves."  
>-Laura Ramirez<em>

Drake opened his eyes slowly and sat up, he surveyed his surroundings and found himself back inside the room, except this time it was completely whole, with no cracks or blemishes anywhere, just a grey ceiling and walls with grey square tiles on the floor.

'…_I guess not.'_ He thought to himself, but then he noticed something else.

Hawke's body wasn't there.

Nor was the tremendous blood splatter Drake had created when he killed Hawke, instead, the room really was neat and tidy, with not a speck of blood or any sign of Hawke's presence.

This annoyed Drake greatly, _'I guess there'll one more time…eventually.'_

Despite this though, he got up and noticing his sword planted firmly in the ground as if waiting for him, picked it up and sheathed it on his back and took one last look around the room.

'_I suppose that womanizing alcoholic got Walker to the piano room in time to restore the ark…' _He thought.

'_The Earl _won't_ be happy about that.' _He smirked as he shook his head and left the room.

He found himself in the same hallway that the group had found themselves in previously, without a thought, he began walking, on and on and on until he reached the door at the end, he opened that to, entering the circular library where the exorcists had fought the Noah twins and Arystar Krory had stayed back to fight, he entered the door in the center of the room, walked on some more, until he came to a flight of stairs, he walked up and up until he saw a door and heard voices…they sounded angry, like friendly insults hurled from one person to his rival.

Lavi was demanding that "bean sprout" show himself, Allen viciously demanded that he stop calling him bean sprout, Kanda remarked that "bean sprouts" voice came from the sky, Allen again angrily demanded him to stop calling him bean sprout.

Drake allowed himself a small smile_, 'How childish…ignorance is indeed bliss…if only they knew…not for long now though…soon…very soon…'_

Drake pulled open the door and stepped into a blinding light, he lifted his arm to shield his eyes until they adjusted to the light.

'Oh! Drakes here as well!' Lavi shouted loudly as he ran and tried to give Drake a running hug.

He failed, Drake sidestepped him and dodged it, and Lavi crashed to the ground painfully.

'Ow…why'd you do that?' Lavi asked.

Drake grunted a non-response before turning to the sky where Allen's voice had come from.

'Allen! Is the womanizing alcoholic known only as Cross Marian with you?' He shouted.

'Eh-?' Allen responded in surprise but was quickly cut off by the person in question.

'I am here master.' Cross said in a much different tone then before, this shocked Allen because the tone of his voice almost seemed to convey respect and admiration for Drake, furthermore…

'Master?' Everyone shouted in surprise.

'Then get your damn ass down here, we need to talk.' Drake said with an air of authority.

'Right away master.' Cross said before turning to Allen, 'Hurry up and open the door stupid apprentice.'

Allen was so shocked by what he heard that he complied without much thought, and opened the door out of the piano room into the rest of the ark.

Cross was quick, stepping out of the door quickly and was met by Drake just as quickly, the rest of the exorcists gathered around to hear them, it was then that they noticed that Cross and Drake stood almost eye to eye, Drake being the slightly taller of the two.

Drake grinned at them, 'Sorry people, it's a private conversation, between _adults only_.' He said, emphasizing the last two words. With that, he and Cross retreated from the rest of the group into a corner nearby where they looked to be having a serious conversation.

'What do you think they're talking about?' Chaoji asked.

'Dunno…' Lavi replied.

Meanwhile, Allen was getting reacquainted with Timcanpy.

'Timcanpy…I haven't seen you since that time in China…' Allen almost sobbed as he held the golem and recounted his memories in China.

'That fateful night…things got so crazy, I'd almost forgotten…' Allen choked.

'I wanted to see you so much!' He started crying wildly as he held the golem to his face.

After that, the four of them put Krory on the couch in the piano room with Lenalee to watch him before taking a walk around the Ark; Allen explained how he had controlled the Ark even though he had no idea how he had done it, then he almost started another argument with Kanda when he noticed Kanda's tattoo that apparently wasn't there before, when Kanda asked "bean sprout" if there was a way out, Allen shouted at him again before he opened a random door to see if they could get out of the Ark that way.

And promptly fell through the open space on the other side.

Taking Kanda by his boot with him.

Who dragged Lavi down by the collar.

And then were stopped by Chaoji.

Chaoji strained desperately to try and pull all three exorcists up, he eyes met Allen's for a moment, and he remembered what Allen had said about saving Tyki, and remembered that he couldn't forgive Allen just yet for saying such a thing.

All of a sudden though, a green light appeared from out of the sky and attached itself to Chaoji's wrist in the form of two linked bracelets.

Chaoji felt an incredible strength within him, and with one pull, he yanked all three exorcists up and out of the emptiness.

'Oh that's right? You were compatible with an innocence…Hercules!' Lavi praised.

'It's stuck on my wrist…' Chaoji remarked, fingering the bracelet.

'Maybe it managed to materialize properly once the Ark calmed down?' Allen offered.

_Elsewhere within the Ark…_

'You're sure about this?' Drake asked as he eyed the exorcist general, looking for his reaction.

'Yes…well…there isn't much room for alternatives are there…with the war and all…' Cross replied.

'Allen is the key, but it's going to be dangerous…I'm more concerned about whether you will turn tail first.' Drake said as he folded his arms and squinted at Cross while leaning on the wall.

'Haha…you know me to well master…but you should know that I know that this is a serious matter, and I know what I must do' Cross trailed off.

'Yes…I know you will, it's a risk we have to take I suppose, for the imbeciles and idiots we call _humanity_…' Drake said silently.

'And yet you still fight for them master, after all these centuries, it's always for the humans isn't it? No matter how much you hate them.' Cross smiled, Drake didn't reply and merely looked away.

'Well, everything must come to an end…eventually…' Drake trailed off.

'Ah…Cheer up master, you're always so doom and gloom about everything, at least Hans knew how to crack a joke and smile.' Cross laughed.

'Yes, I do believe it's from Hans that you learned everything that you are today hmm?' Drake said as he straightened himself and prepared to walk off.

'Say master did you-' Cross started but was cut off.

'I felt your presence to some extent; I didn't see you until just now though.'

'Ah I see…where're you going?' Cross asked.

'For a walk until your snow-head comes back.' Came the reply.

'Ah…guess I'd better go back to the room, nothing else to do here.' Cross remarked and walked back to the room where he noticed Lenalee.

He sat down at the side while Lenalee looked over the unconscious form of Krory, Cross sighed.

'Looks like he really pushed his body to the limits in that last battle. That'll take time to recover from.' He told her.

'He's hurt worse than any of us…' Lenalee said tearfully.

'His innocence transforms his body to grant him power, and that's what saved him.' Cross continued.

'If you want him to wake up any time soon. He's going to need some proper medical treatment to fix that body of his.'

'Krory…I'm so sorry.' Lenalee wept.

'You've gotten better at letting your emotions out than you used to be Lenalee…and damn attractive to boot.' He remarked.

'You're almost like a phantom aren't you general…how long have you been here?' Lenalee asked.

'Back when you guys were fighting down there below, I was around too, using Maria's ability to conceal myself. Back when you all got swallowed up by the Ark.' He replied, and then he stepped forward to caress Lenalee's cheek.

'But man, if you were going to turn out this lovely, you should've done it sooner…that hair of yours was beautiful.' He said, this caused Lenalee to remember when Anita had told her that her hair was beautiful.

'Anita…told me the exact same thing.' She said softly.

This caught Cross's attention and he stiffened slightly before softening his gaze.

'Is that so? I told her not to follow me no matter what happened…that idiot. The good women are always a little too feisty for their own good…' He said and trailed off.

'General…' Lenalee started.

They were interrupted by heavy breathing and when the turned to the source, found the three-plus-one group of exorcists staring at them with horror evident on their faces.

'That's a crime master!' Allen hollered at the top of his voice.

'No Allen, you've got it all wrong…' Lenalee attempted to say.

'What's that idiot apprentice? She's sixteen; she's a fine young woman now!' Cross said vehemently.

'I see snow-head has returned, so can we go yet?' An annoyed voice chirped up over the commotion.

Everyone turned to look at Drake, who was leaning in the doorway to the room with his arms folded.

'Well…?' He continued.

'Well…as soon as my idiot apprentice can get his stuff straight.' Cross replied in a laidback manner.

'What?' Allen asked confused.

'The Ark…you can control it…so take control and get us out of here.' Drake said.

'Ah…how?' Allen asked in an embarrassed voice.

'Tell it to cancel its "Edo connection"' Cross said.

'Edo connection? What's that?' Allen asked.

'Don't worry, just say it, then we'll be able to get out of here.' Cross assured him.

'You'd better explain this all properly later Master!' Allen said angrily as he moved to sit in front of the piano.

'Actually he will,' Cross said and jerked his thumb at Drake, who stared at him silently, 'won't you master? Someday…' Cross teased.

Drake rolled his eyes, 'Whatever…just hurry up please?'

'I've gotta hear this too!' Lavi said excitedly and threw himself around Allen; much to the latter's chagrin.

'Just hurry it up bean sprout!' Kanda said irritably.

'Didn't you say so yourself?' Allen returned with indignation

'Stop fighting you two!' Lenalee ordered.

'Ark…open the gate.' Allen ordered shakily.

'C-cancel the ship's Edo connection.' He finished.

At this command the Ark burst into life, it encased itself in a white cube and disappeared from its original location.

'And where is the gate opening to…?'

At the same time, Miranda was crying over her perceived inability to stop the Ark form disappearing. When suddenly, several rectangular white blocks appeared in a circle and began to crackle with energy, Miranda noticed through her tears that everyone's "time" was coming back into her innocence; a bright light filled the sky and with no warning the whole Ark came down upon them.

Then, a door opened out in front of the Ark and Lavi stepped out and waved at them.

'Hey, everybody ok?' He shouted.

'Lavi?' Everyone shouted in surprise.

'You came back!' Marie exclaimed happily.

'You're alive! The vanished time came back!' Miranda cried tearfully in joy.

'Is Kanda alright as well?' Marie asked loudly.

'Shut up Marie!' Came the reply from said person.

'Master! Did you hear that?' Marie said, ignoring Kanda's comments.

'A-ask if that new child who is to become my apprentice is safe as well.' Tiedoll choked out.

Drake rolled his eyes at the tearful and happy reunion between the exorcists; he turned his body away from them and began walking away from them, hoping that none of them would notice the one missing person, unfortunately for him…

'Wait! Where are you going?' Allen asked as Drake was walking off, he stopped.

'…Somewhere else other than this place, probably just go wherever my senses tell me…' He said without turning around.

'Why not come back with us?' Allen asked with a smile.

'Excuse me?' Drake said with surprise as he turned to look at the smiling exorcist and gave him an incredulous look.

'You fight the Earl don't you? If you come back with us you can find a home to stay in, and family too.' Allen offered.

'Har har, thanks but no thanks, see ya!' Drake said as he turned back and waved at them.

'Oh come on! Stop being like Kanda will ya?' Lavi said.

'Yeah, everyone needs family and a place to stay right? Besides, how are you gonna get out of here? I can give you a lift.' Allen said while thinking something else, _'And I'll drop you off in the order and prevent you from going anywhere else!'_

'_That idiot must think I'm a dumbass, probably just drop me off…at the order's headquarters or something.' _Drake mused to himself.

'...Do you honestly think I have nowhere to go?' Drake asked.

'Huh?' Allen said.

'I _do_ have somewhere to go, I _do _have family, and in answer to your last question, I have my ways of getting around…you didn't seriously think I _swam_ here did you?' Drake said, turning around to face the two fully, Lavi and Allen shifted a little uneasily.

Drake stared at them, 'did you?'

'Well…' Allen started.

'Oh come on! Can you stop making such a fuss? Just come with us, in the very least allow us to thank you for your help!' Lenalee said angrily, she had been eager to get to know to new arrival at first but was starting to think he could be really irritating at times.

'Why do you all...? Look…make no mistake, I _do_ fight against the Earl, but I do so with very different reasons and motivations, different weapons too, and I won't be welcome at the order even if I _wanted_ to go with you, and not for the reasons you think.' Drake explained brusquely.

Before Allen or Lavi could reply, Drake spoke again, 'So really, I don't want to go with you, I'm the lone wolf sort of person ok? I'm _way_ better off on my own _ok_? So…Goodbye!' He said and walked off.

'But…' Allen attempted.

'I said goodbye!' Drake shouted.

And he walked off into the distance.

**Well that's it, pretty much, one of the shorter chapters I've written-excuse me-typed. Updates are going to get more and more sporadic, sorry but I've no choice.**

**Nothing much to say really, just read and…do whatever it is you do after reading…**


	15. Chapter 14: Falling Down

**One of the most difficult chapters I have ever written for this story, primarily because I hadn't been keeping track of D. Gray-man that well up to this point and have only recently read the third exorcists and the seed of destruction arcs, I originally planned for Drake to appear again during the third exorcists arc to fight off the Noah, fight Allen to join the Order, win, and then disappear again after winning, but I changed the plan when I decided I didn't really like Drake bashing everyone and winning the entire day single-handedly because I don't want him to be too powerful.**

**With that little explanation done, let's start.**

**Don't own -man.**

_Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.  
>-Confucius<em>

'So…how's playing guard dog for a human feel?' A tall figure teased the equally tall figure standing beside him on a rooftop with a cheeky grin, it was broad daylight and a crowd had gathered at the carnival on the ground, but on the tall rooftops, crouched, and with the sun shining straight down, they were almost invisible, but not at all detached from the happenings on the ground.

Drake turned his head and glared his at his companion with his unearthly crimson orbs, the person in question backed down a little but kept his grin up, seeing as he was going nowhere with simply glaring at him, Drake rolled his eyes and turned back to watching the crowd below him.

'He puts me off, all his talk of saving everyone and the world and making it a better place, all the sort of idealistic nonsense…' Drake trailed off.

He then wrinkled his nose with disgust, _'nauseating.'_

The other person simply smirked and looked back down at the crowd in the streets, he wore a similar black long coat to the one drake wore except that it was unzipped, underneath he wore a dark gray sleeveless shirt with "Are you afraid of the dark?" scrawled in large, capitalized blackwords. Along with that, he wore a pair of black jeans like Drake, although unlike Drake, he wore shoes instead of military style boots. Unlike the dark-skinned, middle-eastern sort of look that Drake had, he had a much paler Caucasian complexion with dark-brown eyes, a sharp nose, and a more pointed chin. His dark hair fell down to cover the right side of his face while the other side was spiky and stood up.

He spied a clown in the streets performing for money.

'Is that him?' He asked Drake.

'Specify "him".' Drake replied.

'The clown performing on the street in front of a very large group of people, he wearing loads of makeup and-' He started but was cut off.

'I see him.' Drake said.

They stared at the clown for a while, some people stopped by to give out cash, others just ignored him.

'I heard that the 14th is awakening.' The other person said.

'Yeah…he is.' Drake answered.

'You were there weren't you? What happened back there?' The person prodded Drake.

Drake smiled in response and turned to the other person, 'He put on quite a show for everyone to see.'

Drake thought back to the 14th words, claiming that he would destroy the Earl on take over as the new Earl.

'_Really_…wish I could've been there.' The other guy muttered.

'Why do you always get to do all the crazy stuff while I get loaded with the boring stuff?' He suddenly whined out loud.

Drake blinked at him, 'Do you really want me to answer that question?'

'…Kinda?'

'…Fine, it's because the last two times you got the "exciting stuff", I had to pull your damn ass out of it, _that's why_.' Drake said with indignation.

'…Ahaha…right…' The other person said in an embarrassed tone, the duo continued watching the area quietly, until the other guy spoke up again.

'What're we looking for?'

'Trouble.' Drake answered.

'In that case shouldn't we be-' He was cut off.

'Not go down there and _look_ for trouble you idiot, stay up here and _watch_ out for any trouble.' Drake replied, by now quite irritated with his companion.

'Relax man,' the other guy said, 'I knew that I was just trying to get you to lighten up a bit.'

Drake rolled his eyes at his companion and resumed watching the crowd below. Suddenly, something caught his eye, he spied two people; one of them with long black hair was sitting in front of a tall structure was holding his head with one hand with a long object wrapped up in cloth being leaned in between his legs, the other was standing up and looking at a map.

'_Wait a minute…what are _those_ two doing here?'_ Drake wondered as he stared at Kanda and Johnny with surprise, he stood up uncertainly; they weren't very far from where the clown was performing, could they perhaps be…

'See something you like Drake?' The other guy teased again.

'No…I see a potential hiccup in our dear Allen's plan so far…' Drake answered.

'Really? Akuma?' The other person asked.

'No, something else, his pals have come to find him.' Drake replied.

'Huh! Which ones?' The other guy asked as he switched over to where Drake was looking at.

'The one with the ponytail and the one with the thick glasses, and I meant the order, not the Noah.'

The other guy thought for a moment, his mind cycling through all the profiles that he had seen and memorized of the black order, he came up with only one.

'Kanda is it? Who's the other guy?' He asked.

'Johnny, he designs the exorcists uniforms and is a member of the science division, apparently was a close friend of the Suman guy who fell off of the deep end a couple of months ago.' Drake said.

They continued watching as Johnny offered Kanda what looked like a small bottle, Kanda apparently rejected him since Johnny now tried to force it on him; the two struggled for a bit before Kanda threw the bottle away, got up and seemed to declare something while Johnny chased after the bottle, Drake followed Johnny's movements through the crowd and noticed something,

'_He's getting dangerously close to Allen…'_ he thought.

His thought was confirmed a moment later when Johnny ended up right in front of Allen in his chase after the bottle as he held out his hat for money.

At first, the only thing that happened was that everyone who had been watching the clown applauded as he finished his act and began dumping money into his hat, Johnny apparently watched in confusion for a while before he realized what was happening and tried to search for his wallet. But apparently something happened and he didn't bring it out.

Then Kanda came up from behind and smacked Johnny and apparently yelled at him for something while Allen looked mortified at seeing the both of them, Johnny muttered a few words and scampered off, leaving Kanda with the still disguised Allen.

Kanda looked at Johnny running away while Allen stared at the two for a while. However, Kanda turned around and focused his gaze on the clown; Allen immediately went back to performing while trying to ignore Kanda as the swordsman continued to stare at Allen.

The staring went on as Allen continued performing for the crowd who hadn't seemed to notice what was going on up until that point. Kanda's hand slowly went to the wrapped up object he held, right at that moment, Johnny reappeared from behind Kanda and tried to drag him off, eventually succeeding as Allen appeared to heave a sigh of relief.

'_Oh_, so close!' The person with Drake pumped his fist and almost shrieked.

Drake ignored him, he had begun feeling an eerie sensation, the kind that made him feel extremely cautious and that something bad was going to happen, he narrowed his eyes and saw the world turn into a muted red and brown again, highlighted in this color were a pair of white glowing figures, beneath the two of them a large dark patch was growing.

'Shit' Drake muttered.

'Huh?' The other person didn't quite catch it.

Just then, the ground seemed to open up with a large circular patch of darkness, a mouth appeared out of the patch and swallowed Allen and a young girl.

Screams arose from the crowd and they stumbled and tripped over one another in a bid to get away as fast as they could. Kanda leapt into action withdrawing a katana from within the wrapping and attempted to attack the Akuma, however, as if on cue, it exploded with a mighty force.

Allen appeared out of the smoke, clutching the girl close to his chest, most of his makeup was gone except for a few markings on his face.

Both Kanda and Johnny seemed to be astonished by the sight, Johnny even screamed Allen's name loud enough for the duo sitting on a nearby rooftop to hear.

'Wow…he sure has a loud voice.' The person with Drake said.

'Ya think?' Drake remarked sarcastically.

After destroying the Akuma, Allen patted the girl on the head, gave her a few comforting words and sent her on her way, as the mother of the girl took her away, Johnny ran at a full sprint and gave Allen a flying tackle and began a tirade on having searched for Allen, Allen for his part, took Johnny's hands, lowered them of his shoulders, got up.

And took off running at full sprint.

The person with Drake burst out laughing at that until Drake elbowed him in the gut and told him to shut up.

Kanda was faster however, he grabbed a hold of Allen, flipped him over and pinned him to the ground.

'…Get back to the HQ, I can take it from here.' Drake said without turning.

'What? Then why'd you drag me here for?' The other guy whined.

'You wanted to come and look remember?' Drake said with an annoyed tone.

'Ah…right, see ya Drake!' The other guy said and walked off.

Drake ignored him as he concentrated on the trio on the ground; they were now mostly alone after the Akuma attack. Kanda was now sitting on Allen with his blade to Allen's neck, who was looking very fearful at the moment; he then took a towel from Johnny and vigorously rubbed of the rest of the makeup from Allen's face.

Drake took this time to drop down from his perch into an alley on the ground in order to try and hear what they were talking about better than from his perch.

'ARE YOU TRYING TO PEEL THE SKIN OFF MY FACE STUPID KANDA?' Allen screamed loudly.

'Bean sprout…' Kanda began.

'It's Allen!' Allen screamed for the second time.

'It appears that somehow, you haven't turned into the 14th yet huh…' Kanda said solemnly.

Allen was silenced for a moment before his expression changed into an angry glare.

Kanda kept talking as if he hadn't noticed, 'First, answer me one thing…that crow…How come Howard Link died.

This revelation completely stunned Allen while Kanda continued talking.

'I heard the gist of what happened from Lenalee and the others, that's the only thing, I can't seem to understand… was it you? Or was it the Noah?'

Allen flashed-back to when Link had saved his life from the Apocryphos by delaying it, enabling him to escape with the Noah; he was stunned to think that his guardian had died, from any causes at all.

Just ten, Drake felt that eerie sensation again, another dark patch opened up and another akuma tried to swallow Allen.

The other two were surprised by this although Allen quickly, exploded out wielding his broadsword.

'When…when did Link die?' Allen called out as more akuma appeared and Kanda activated his own innocence.

'Please tell me!' Allen continued.

'I knew it! The one that killed the inspector wasn't Allen!' Johnny cried out in relief.

Ignoring him, Kanda answered Allen, 'It was soon after you got out of prison Allen!'

'Inspector Leverrier and the guards that were chasing after you found his body!'

Allen flashed-back again even as they fought the akuma, angrily remembering the Apocryphos.

Kanda destroyed another of the massive akuma, yet even as he did that, more dark swirls appeared on the ground with a myriad of voices calling 'I feel…I feel the 14th.'

Allen thought quickly, remembering as he looked around that there were still dozens and dozens of curious onlookers, he propelled himself with his innocence up all the way to the very top of a building, to Kanda and Johnny's surprise.

'Bean sprout!' Kanda called out angrily.

'Tim! Take me to the most isolated, empty place there is!' Allen shouted as the golden golem appeared and began leading Allen away.

'Wait! Where're you going Allen?' Johnny shouted as Allen looked back sadly

'Damn it! Hold on bean sprout!' Kanda yelled as well.

'That bastard!' Kanda swore angrily, but then noticed something.

The gates the akuma had created were disappearing.

'The akuma's gates closed?' He said with shock.

'_No that's not it…they're chasing after beansprout!' _He thought angrily.

'We're going after them Johnny!' Kanda shouted again as he looked back at the struggling scientist.

'Hold on…Allen's luggage…' Johnny protested as he tried to pack up whatever Allen had left behind.

'To hell with the luggage!' Kanda shouted yet again.

'No way!' Johnny replied forcefully as he continued trying to pack, meanwhile, someone else besides Drake watched the incident quietly from within the crowd.

'Time to go…' Drake muttered quietly, he looked up back at the rooftop where he had come from; he took a deep breath, pumping his legs with energy, he leapt up and onto the rooftop, he then set off immediately running and jumping between on rooftops as he pursued Allen his own way.

He tracked the former exorcists easily, Allen's body was highlighted with a greenish-white glow amongst all the dark human shapes, and in any case, would there be anyone else running on the rooftops and escaping from others right at this moment in time?

'_An escaped convict maybe…not that I've heard of any escaped convicts in the area…' _Drake mulled to himself as he darted from roof to roof, over and under lines, around chimneys and across balconies, seamlessly transitioning and moving over obstacles, constantly keeping momentum as he tracked his quick moving target.

'_He's fast for a partly injured person…you've done well Cross…'_ Drake thought quietly as he paused to scan the area, he looked down and saw the figures of both Kanda and Johnny as they raced to find Allen.

He watched as the duo stopped for a moment, Kanda surveyed his surroundings suspiciously while Johnny-who was carrying Allen's luggage as well as their own-was able to catch his breath and pull something out of his bag. It was a golem, but different from the others that Drake had seen up until that point.

'_A special kind of golem…maybe a tracking device?'_ Drake wondered as the golem flew off quickly.

He turned his attention back to the duo, Johnny seemed to be explaining to Kanda how it worked, which seemed to be making Kanda quite irritated and angry at him. Unfortunately, Drake couldn't be sure since he couldn't read lips and was too far away to hear.

Drake shook his head angrily, _'Focus! This is not the time to be distracted by trivialities!'_

He turned his head back towards the city and switched back to his "other" vision, he was surprised when he detected two other signatures, these were highlighted black and purple in his vision.

'_Noah_' Drake hissed to himself, he couldn't deal with them now, not when he had an exorcist about to turn into a Noah running loose.

When he turned back to the ex-black order duo, they were already moving quickly through the city, his "other" vision told him that Allen had stopped beneath a bridge of sorts.

'_Well…race you to him schmucks.' _Drake grinned to himself as he set off in hot pursuit.

It didn't take very long, as Drake got closer; he noticed that Allen seemed to glowing alternate greenish white and purplish-black.

'_The 14__th__ is taking over…shit.'_ Drake cursed silently as he continued moving across the rooftops in the straightest line possible to his target.

Below him, Kanda and Johnny continued running through crowded streets and winding paths which lengthened their journey considerably, on the rooftops however, despite the infinite number of obstacles in his path, Drake managed good time and was soon only several dozen meters from Allen, but he wasn't the only one looking for the renegade exorcist.

He spied several swirling pools of darkness beginning to appear around the boy; the akuma had kept up the chase and were now closing in on the weakened exorcist.

Allen however, apparently couldn't make any attempt to defend himself; he didn't move as an akuma appeared out of one of the swirling masses and moved to attack him.

Drake reacted quickly, within a bare few seconds he closed the gap between himself and the renegade exorcist, he jumped and cleanly sliced the akuma in half with his black blade.

Just then, Kanda and Johnny came running through, surprising Drake.

'You sure are fast; I thought I left you behind while running on the rooftops…' Drake said as Kanda stared at him.

'What're _you_ doing here?' Kanda asked angrily with his blade pointed at Drake.

'The same reason as you, or rather, I'm just watching out for _him_.' Drake said as he nodded at Allen.

Allen by now had collapsed against the wall; Kanda moved to help Allen but was furiously batted away by the glaring ex-exorcist.

'Kanda…' He gasped out.

'I really don't get you…I was really happy that you were alive…' He said.

'But what about Alma? Weren't the two of you finally free?' He continued in anger.

'Despite that…why…why are you wearing the order's clothes…WHY ARE YOU THROWING AWAY YOUR HARD-WON FREEDOM!' He finally cried out.

Kanda grabbed him angrily and held him up by the collar as Drake and Johnny watched.

'Even if it's you…I swore I'd take this to my deathbed without telling a single soul…' He said menacingly as he glared at Allen.

'Those last moments with Alma belonged to me and me alone.' Kanda growled.

'That's the very proof that I and he are free.' He finished.

Allen was struck by this, he began to remember being in Kanda's memories and witnessing the time he had spent with Alma, he began sobbing uncontrollably.

'_What…he started crying?' _Kanda thought in surprise.

'Hey John…' He started turning around and noticed something else, 'you're crying too?'

'Well I'm not crying, just so you know.' Drake interjected.

'I wasn't asking you!' Kanda shouted at him

And then just like that, Allen slipped out of Kanda's grip and fell to the ground, unconscious.

Kanda and Johnny were shocked by this while Drake knelt beside Allen to examine him. He noticed that Allen had one hand clutching his side.

'It's the wound you gave him… I think it's affecting him badly.' Drake concluded.

'Does it hurt Allen? Let me take a look!' Johnny cried and knelt down while Drake stood up and put his hand on his chest.

'_Really? Crying his name at every point you can? I'm feeling nauseous again…' _Drake thought to himself quietly.

All of a sudden, Kanda spun around with his hand on his blade.

'What's the matter with you?' Drake asked with his head tilted to one side.

'Nothing…' Kanda answered.

Meanwhile, Johnny opened up Allen's shirt and was stunned by what he saw.

'This is the wound from Mugen…' He said in shock, Drake turned and noticed that the wound had little feathers that seemed to be growing from them.

'It's innocence!' Johnny exclaimed.

'The innocence is protecting its user, trying to help heal him since only Allen is capable of wielding it as it's accommodator.' Drake remarked.

'At the North American branch, when Allen didn't die despite receiving a mortal blow from you, it wasn't because of the 14th awakening…' Johnny said slowly.

Drake nodded, 'it was the same story back when they were looking for Cross, when I found him after Tyki Mikk put a hole in his heart, I found that the innocence was trying to close up the wound and heal him.'

'When Allen was confined, us in the science division didn't even get to see him once, I don't think Inspector Leverrier was unaware of this…was it kept a secret? Why?' Johnny wondered out loud.

'Isn't it obvious why it was a secret?' Drake said.

'Huh?' Johnny looked up at Drake.

'Look at yourself, look at the way your reacting.' Drake rolled his eyes.

'I don't…' Johnny said in a confused.

Drake smacked his own face, 'Oh for goodness sakes'! If you had known about the wound, wouldn't you and the others have tried to do something drastic…like…ooh…I don't know…breaking him out!' Drake cried out in exasperation.

Kanda kept silent for a moment, before he whacked Johnny with the handle of Mugen and said, 'At any rate, let's go somewhere we can let him sleep, if you want to keep carrying on like this, do it there.'

'Agreed.' Drake nodded as Johnny picked Allen up.

'Ah…but we don't have money to get a room…' Johnny remarked.

'Doesn't bean sprout have any money in his luggage?' Kanda asked.

'Well I have funds to contribute if you need a donation…' Drake mocked.

'Hey…'

'Yeah?'

'Shut up.'

Drake smirked at that.

**There. As I said at the start, a hard chapter to write, the next chapter will likely deviate from the main story, and then from that point I'm free to write of my own choosing.**

**However, I may eventually halt for a while because this is the limit of the manga released so far, I want to see where Hoshino Katsura takes the story so you may have to wait a bit.**


	16. Chapter 15: Fighting Back

**As you may or may not have noticed, I have gotten rid of the introduction chapter because I realized that it was no longer relevant with the direction that I was taking the story in, it was also a little misinforming so instead of rewriting, I was too bored so I just scrapped it altogether. It was also a load of hyperbole and crap, so yeah.**

Drake and Kanda watched the unconscious Allen in bed in the inn that they had found to stay for the night. Drake gave a quick glance at his watch.

'_Three quarters past midnight…hm.' _He thought to himself.

The three sat in the room quietly watching Allen, Johnny sat on the bed right next to Allen while Kanda was on the couch and Drake was sitting cross-legged in the corner with his sword propped up beside him. Then Drake spoke.

'I'm surprised you were so willing to pay for the rooms with what were essentially pieces of your own clothing.' He remarked, referring to Kanda paying for the rent with the ornaments of the Black Order's uniform.

'I'll cut you if you don't shut up.' Kanda glared angrily at Drake, Drake wasn't even moved.

'Like you could in a million years.' Drake muttered beneath his breath.

Kanda ignored him, and then noticed that Johnny was moving.

'Trying to wake him again?' Kanda asked.

'Yup, we may as well try reading aloud Cross' debt notices this time.' Johnny replied.

Drake rolled his eyes, stood up and said, 'Well I'm going for a walk, see you around sometime later.' And shut the door as he walked out, but he did not simply walk off, he stayed on to listen in on the scientist and the exorcists' conversation.

'He's probably fighting with the 14th's memories.' He heard Johnny say.

'Allen's fighting, the battle's only begun, right Allen?' Johnny continued, Drake sighed and rubbed his forehead.

This put Drake into some thought about friendship, and the willingness to sacrifice for others, and his mind began to bring up memories of ages past.

'_The kind of friends that Allen has, those who are willing to suffer with him and help him, those are true friends indeed…' _Drake thought to himself.

_Flashback, approximately one thousand years ago…_

'_Go dammit! I'll figure another way out!' Drake hissed in pain as he stood shakily and gripped his sword with his right hand and clutched his bleeding wound with the other._

'_No way in hell. I'm staying right here with you.' Drake turned and found himself staring into a pair of smug, dark brown eyes._

_Drake locked his crimson orbs angrily with his companion, although it had no effect._

'_I said move Hans! That was a damn order!' Drake panted._

'_Yeah well I'm disobeying; you can court-martial me later after we're done.' Hans grinned, stepped forward and pointed his arm blade at the massive demon._

'…_have it your way then.' Drake smirked before turning towards the demon and held out his sword in front of himself._

'_Let's take this bastard down.' Drake hissed angrily._

'_I got your back.' Hans grinned._

_They exchanged a nod before running headlong into the confrontation._

_End_

Drake smirked to himself as he finally left the area and walked outside; he felt the presence of another person watching him from the shadows, he grinned.

'That's my job you know.' He stated as he turned his head to look at a figure around the corner.

Former Inspector Howard Link appeared from behind the corner and looked at Drake; Drake stared back at him before he smirked and walked up to the former inspector.

'I know what your precious Leverrier is planning.' He remarked as he came right up into Link's face.

'Humans will become the holders of fate in the world,' he quoted Leverrier with a wide smirk, Howard noticeably paled a little, but kept his ground, allowing Drake to continue, 'he has _no idea_ _who or what_ he has just insulted by saying that.'

'The strings of fate are held by those more ancient then humanity itself, they _laugh _at whatever we try to do to circumvent them, I've tried personally, I always failed.'

Drake took a breather as he walked past the Inspector and into the night, 'So the next time you see Leverrier, tell him his dream is nothing but load of crap.'

Throughout the night, Drake kept a constant vigil on his surroundings from the rooftops of the town, a silent phantom in the stillness of the night. Confident of the competence of Kanda, he allowed himself to venture far out to the highest tops of the town in order to use his "special" vision better. He detected traces of the Noah and the Earl, unable to pinpoint their location though, he decided not to risk trying to go after them when they might use the opportunity to try to take Allen.

When morning broke, Drake was still walking the rooftops, ensuring the sun was always behind him to blind anyone who saw him as the townspeople began waking up and proceeding on to their daily business. Everything was pretty much fine right up to the point when Drake gained an ominous feeling.

He clutched his chest for a moment, _'Gotta find out where this is coming from.'_

'I'd better go check on them…' He remarked to himself and immediately headed off in the direction of the inn where they stayed at.

To his surprise, all three were gone.

'_Crap, now I gotta go find them.' _He thought angrily.

_A couple of hours ago…_

'My awakening is beginning…! I need to be alone in order to fight it, or else this happens!' Allen cried angrily at Johnny and Kanda as he leaned backwards on a wall of the room, while he had fallen asleep, Neah Walker, the 14th had taken over and hurt Johnny, leading to a confrontation when Kanda returned from seeing Howard Link.

'Yeah…sorry I messed up a lot.' Johnny replied.

'Right now, I cannot…I _will not _be caught by the church!' Allen continued, on hearing this, Johnny fell down onto his hands.

Kanda saw this, and wondered if Johnny had finally caved from the pressure.

He was in for a surprise when Johnny said, 'You haven't given up have you Allen? Those eyes of yours are eyes that haven't given hope…I'm glad.'

Allen was stunned by this, he had no idea how to reply, Johnny continued,

'I'll be by your side you know? That's the reason why I left the church, so that I could be by your side…I will stay by your side from here till the end Allen Walker…as Johnny Gil, as your friend, I want to help you.'

On hearing this, Kanda grinned silently while Allen was still stunned. Then Allen tried hard not to laugh to hard as he recovered, then Kanda so an opportunity, and quite a bit of struggling later, both he and Johnny had Allen cuffed to Johnny to prevent his escape.

As they got up to leave Johnny noticed something, 'Hey shouldn't we wait or leave a note for Drake?'

'Why bother? He'll probably find us at some point by himself.' Kanda said as he walked out of the room.

_Back to the present…_

Drake growled as he stomped out of the inn and climbed up onto a roof, he really wished that they wouldn't just move without at least a note, that way he wouldn't have to waste time and energy trying to track them down in such a large and rather populous place, even if he used his special vision, it could still get blocked by obstacles.

Sighing, he got to the business regardless, scanning through all the streets and alleyways until he saw their silhouettes light up, he breathed a sigh of relief and made his way to them until his sixth sense began acting up.

'_Now that's strange…I feel something else is here…' _Drake thought to himself as he scanned his surroundings from his perch on the rooftop, and then he spied what he was looking for.

'_No fucking way…he's detected Allen already?' _Drake thought as he found himself staring at the Apocryphos himself.

'It_self_.' Drake corrected his own thoughts, remembering that it was only the human form of the guardian of the heart of the innocence.

He could see that the Apocryphos was conversing with Kanda nonchalantly about the work various mechanical devices piled up on the ground, the result of the repairing job that Johnny had apparently undertaken in order to raise funds for the little group.

Drake continued eyeing the Apocryphos from afar as he conversed with Kanda.

'_Has he detected Allen already? The kid's in trouble if he did.'_ Drake did not know where Allen was at the moment, only that he was probably with Johnny if Kanda was alone with Timcanpy.

Now however, he sat, watched and waited to see what the Apocryphos would do upon seeing Kanda.

It happened incredibly fast, the yellow golem suddenly supersized like he had near the end of the Earl's second attack on the Black Order Headquarters and crushed Apocryphos under himself. Drake continued watching intently as Kanda jumped backwards in surprise.

Then, several sharp, curved spikes erupted from the ground in a massive explosion, and threw the yellow golem of the ground, piercing it several times in the process. Kanda reacted quickly to the sudden assault by activating Mugen and unleashing a swarm of insects with a slash.

After pushing the yellow golem off, a dark mass of sharp spikes emerged from the small crater.

'What are you?!' Kanda cried as he surrounded his scabbard with energy to use as his second blade.

He then charged the Apocryphos and tried to slash him multiple times in rapid succession, but to no avail as the Apocryphos was fast enough to dodge all of his strikes. Apocryphos for his part suddenly stopped and grabbed both of Kanda's blades with his bare hands just as Timcanpy recovered from his attack. He threw Kanda into the ground enough force to crack the road and walked over menacingly to Timcanpy. However, Kanda immediately grabbed hold of him and tried to stop him, Drake saw his chance.

Before the Apocryphos could move again, Drake literally flew off his perch and charged straight into the Apocryphos and slammed him straight in his chest with his left claw gauntlet. This sent the Apocryphos flying off of Kanda and down the road several tens of meters. Drake reached down and grabbed Kanda by his collar and pulled him to his feet.

'Get up dammit; he's not going to give us the whole day.' Drake said as Kanda staggered to his feet.

'Who the hell is he?' Kanda asked as he picked up Mugen shakily, he had been completely stunned by the force of the impact.

'He's-' Drake started but was interrupted when Apocryphos dashed straight in front of him and returned the favor by slamming his fist into Drake, Drake barely brought up his blade to block in time and was pushed back hard and slammed into the wall of a building.

'Dammit!' Kanda hissed and once again tried to attack the Apocryphos, this time; it did not show any mercy and almost cast aside Kanda with simplicity, slamming him into a building on the opposite side of the street.

Drake counterattacked, launching himself right at the Apocryphos and clashing his blade with the Apocryphos's arm as it blocked him.

'I had sensed your presence Halfling, I was wondering when you'd show up.' Apocryphos muttered as their faces came close to each other.

'What are you doing here? You have no business with this war.' It hissed at Drake.

'It's becomes my business when the human race itself is threatened, and I don't like rough demons running around the place' Drake replied as he disengaged and then re-engaged in another clash.

'Then we have similar objectives; why not help me in this fight?' Apocryphos asked as they clashed again.

'Because I was made to promise to protect the boy, your assimilation of him goes against it.' Drake said as-a-matter-of-factly.

Apocryphos's eyes narrowed dangerously, 'Then you shall have to disappear, I cannot have you interfering with my goals.' It uttered vehemently.

'Try me.' Drake remarked, as the two pushed hard against each other until both were blown backwards from the force that exploded from their clash.

'You will die here Halfling, and Allen Walker shall be _mine_.' Apocryphos hissed through clenched teeth, and then he leapt high and right down on Drake, aiming a powerful crushing blow right onto Drake, Drake turned sideways with his right facing the Apocryphos and blocked the powerful blow with his sword held vertically in his right hand while bending his knees to give himself the use of his leg muscles, he then redirected the blow to his right while slashing diagonally right and upwards with his left claw gauntlet and sliced the Apocryphos's left arm clean off.

The Apocryphos was so stunned from the sudden removal of a limb that he had no time to react to Drake's next move. Drake spun around while spinning his sword so that he now wielded it backhanded and in one fluid motion, stabbed the Apocryphos through its torso with his back facing it, he then continued twisting his body so that he now faced the Apocryphos, grabbed his sword with both hands and sent it all the way through right to the hilt while lifting it up into the air. Then he set the Apocryphos back down on with a massive blow from his left claw gauntlet, sent it flying of his blade and down the street.

'Not on _my_ watch you won't.' Drake hissed as he stretched his left arm to the side, a purple colored outline of some sort of long barreled gun with a metallic grip appeared and materialized out of the air, Drake grabbed it out of the air as it did with his left arm and pointed it at Apocryphos with his arm outstretched while he stabilized himself with his legs apart.

Apocryphos glared at him as it struggled to get up despite the injuries dealt to him, Drake smirked and gripped the trigger of the gun, everyone watched as a long whirring sound began emanating from it as strange symbols on the gun began to glow red ominously and moved slowly from the grip of the gun to the barrel where they began to glow extremely bright, Drake grinned.

'Try _this one_ Apocryphos.' He said as he released the trigger.

What followed _should _have been a loud *BANG* if it were a normal gun, unfortunately for Apocryphos, neither the gun, nor Drake were anything remotely normal.

As a result, what followed was more of a *WHAM*

A massive fireball erupted from the barrel of the gun and sped towards the Apocryphos while the resulting recoil from the gun was enough to push Drake backwards several feet even with his entire body tensed and fixed in position.

The fireball made direct contact with the Apocryphos in a massive, cataclysmic conflagration of light and fire that utterly devastated everything around it, when the smoke cleared, the Apocryphos had disappeared, and the area was now a rather large crater in the ground, the remains of the buildings were nothing but walls barely holding up a few square meters of floor area…then that collapsed too.

The streets had already been deserted since the start of the fight, and the surrounding buildings had also been vacated, so there weren't any bodies lying around.

Drake fell down on to one knee and gasped from the exertion, he had never ever been strong enough to fire a fully charged shot and then continue fighting immediately without at least some recovery time, and that irked him _a lot._

When the smoke and dust cleared, the Apocryphos was lying with half of his body blown clean off in the blast; Kanda -who had been struggling to stand properly following the Apocryphos's last attack on him- was stunned by the sheer power of the attack, he knew Drake was likely to immensely powerful, but he had no idea he was _that_ powerful.

Drake rested for about a dozen seconds before he stood up straight and carrying both his sword in his right hand and his gun in his left, walked over to the middle of the smoking crater where the Apocryphos was trying to get up with whatever remained of him.

Drake walked all the way right up in front of him and pointed his gun at Apocryphos, he gurgled and gasped and glared at Drake.

'You're good Apocryphos.' Drake remarked, as he began charging up his weapon again.

'But I'm _better._' Drake said smugly as he released the trigger at a quarter of full charge, blowing up what remained of the Apocryphos, and then doing it two more times in repaid succession, at the end nothing remained of the Apocryphos at all.

Drake sighed; he knew that although he had just gotten rid of an irritating opponent, he had also destroyed the guardian of the Innocence cube, which meant that they had just lost one of the more powerful enemies of the Earl, all because he wanted to essentially consume Allen's body, and Drake would have none of that.

Shaking his head free of those thoughts, he briskly walked over to Kanda while sheathing both his sword on his back and his gun in a holster on his right thigh.

'Get up, we have to get moving, I have already detected the Earl's presence, we need to move now!' He said before turning to Timcanpy, 'Find Allen Now!'

The yellow golem immediately flew off, Drake and Kanda quickly followed behind, unnoticed by either of the two though, Apocryphos was not _entirely_ dead, and his essence and the tiny parts that remained moved silently away, into the shadows where he could rebuild slowly and bide his time.

_Elsewhere…_

Allen, who was Johnny at the time at a shop repairing a customer's machine, suddenly felt his arm activate and realized the Apocryphos was somewhere, he ran out of the shop with Johnny on his heels and called to Timcanpy to try to find him but was stunned when he received no answer, then he saw the person he was least expecting to see.

'14th…' A low voice growled angrily.

Allen spun around and found himself staring right at the Millenium Earl.

Back with the duo, Drake climbed up and onto a roof before grabbing Kanda by his collar and pulling him up the rest of the way.

'C'mon dammit move faster! Aren't you supposed to be pretty agile?' Drake shouted at Kanda.

'Shut up! You weren't thrown into the ground were you?' Kanda shot back as they ran along the roof in the straightest line possible.

'Yeah well that's cuz you were too slow to hit the bastard!' Drake sneered.

'You bastard! I'll…' Kanda tried to think of something to say but could not, and then they saw an explosion right in front of them in the distance.

'There! We need to hurry.' Drake said.

'Dammit.' Kanda hissed, still hurting from the fight with the Apocryphos as they raced to the explosion with Tim leading them.

_In an Alley…_

Allen gasped in pain as he deflected another blow from the Earl; he was in no real condition to fight any properly powerful enemies with his wound.

'What's the matter 14th, feeling weak today?' The Earl mocked as he aimed and launched another blow with his broadsword at Allen.

Allen grunted in pain as he dodged it and jumped backwards to put space between himself and the Earl but then grimaced as his wound began to act up again from the exertion.

'Die!' The Earl snarled and lunged forward.

'_Crap!' _Allen thought, and then

*CLANG*

The Earl's sword collided with another sword stabbed right into the ground in front of Allen; the Earl looked up and glared at the person in question who threw it -and was now crouching on the hilt and looking down at him- in anger.

'You!' He exclaimed.

'Yes me…are you surprised?' Drake mocked.

The Earl roared in anger as he pulled his sword back and brought it down with a crushing blow on to Drake, Drake backflipped of his sword, grabbed it and blocked the blow, the blow was so powerful, it pushed Drake hard enough into the ground to cause the road to buckle and crack.

'You're becoming an annoyance…disappear already!' The Earl shouted as he jumped backwards and slashed his sword in the air, releasing a wave of dark energy at Drake.

Without hesitation, Drake rushed forward to meet the wave and front-flipped over it, he landed without missing a beat while Kanda, though still badly injured, was able to jump both himself, Allen and Johnny out of the wave's path.

Drake continued rushing towards the Earl with no hesitation and slammed his left claw gauntlet into the Earl's sword as he raised it to block the blow; the force sent the Earl flying into a building.

'I'll always be an annoyance until I knock you back down to hell...' Drake muttered as he advanced into the building, only to find that the Earl had disappeared.

'Damn, again?' He hissed to himself, grumbling, he walked back to where the trio were.

'You guys alright?' He inquired.

'Yeah I think so, where'd that bastard go anyway?' Kanda answered.

'Dunno, we need to find someplace to rest first…Johnny!' Drake said in a commanding tone.

'Y-yes?' The person in question answered.

'We're gonna need whatever money you gathered to find a place to rest.' Drake said.

'Oh…er…' Johnny replied and searched around in his bag for a moment before coming up with a couple of notes and a few coins.

'That's it?' Drake remarked in a surprised tone.

'Yeah sorry, we didn't manage to gather that much since we didn't have a lot of time.' Johnny replied, embarrassed at his predicament.

'You guys went missing for what? Four? Five hours? You need to start charging a bit more…' Drake sighed as he handed the money back and fished out his own wallet, he took a brief glance inside before putting back in the back pocket of his long pants.

'Looks like a have enough, alright let's find a place to hook up for a while...' He remarked as he sheathed his weapons and began walking off.

Johnny looked at Kanda for a moment; Kanda simply shrugged at him and followed Drake with Allen close behind.

_Sometime later…_

'Well that seems to have done that I suppose.' Drake remarked as he sat down to rest his legs.

'So I suppose you're just going "disappear" now, like all the other times?' Kanda asked with a roll of his eyes as he sat down opposite Drake.

'Oh no, actually, I've made up my mind about this issue.' Drake replied without bothering to look at Kanda.

'Huh?' Kanda said in surprise.

'I'm coming with you back to the Order.'

**Sorry I skimped on several more updates, I was waiting for the next few chapters to come out so that I could see what had happened and adjust my plans accordingly.**

**Hey could you readers really tell me if I do a good fight scene or not? And any improvements, because to write fight scenes all I ever do is just imagine them in my head and then describe them.**

**Reviews appreciated, as always.**


	17. Chapter 16: All Sealed Up

**Here's another update for you guys.**

**It took a while to write, but it all worked out in the end thankfully.**

**Don't own D. Gray-man**

Kanda gaped at Drake, who was simply returned the stare without any hint of any emotion forming on his face at the exorcist. There was an uncanny silence between the two.

'Why would you do something like that?' Kanda asked, unable to come up with a retort.

Drake for his part, sighed and answered, 'well it's kind of hard to help someone when you have to remain so stealthy and hidden, much easier when one is out in the open.'

'You're protecting Allen?' Kanda asked incredulously.

'Long story.' Drake said simply.

Kanda rolled his eyes and smirked, 'whatever, do whatever the heck you want to do.'

'So can I kill you right here and now?' Drake asked without hesitation, Kanda turned and glared darkly at him, Drake simply rolled his eyes and looked away.

'Ah what the hell…wanna play a game of chess?' He remarked, Kanda stared at him.

At the moment, Allen was resting in a room provided for him, knowing what had happened the last time he had fallen asleep, he stayed wide awake as Johnny slept peacefully on the other bed. As he watched Johnny sleeping quietly, he was overcome with the need to lie down himself and fall asleep due to the exhausting day, first realizing the Apocryphos was in town and then encountering the earl. Allen did not totally believe that Drake had destroyed the Apocryphos, but at least he was out of the way for the moment.

Allen felt his eyelids droop, he very badly needed to rest, he could almost hear someone in his head gently willing him to sleep, but the memory of the 14th hurting Johnny kept him going…and going…and going…

'_Alright dammit, I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes' _He thought, but no sooner had he done so then he felt himself drift off into a deep sleep and collapse against the bed he was sitting on. Timcanpy watched this with interest; he knew that once Allen started dreaming, the 14th would awaken within him, the golem was severely torn between its loyalty for Allen, and its loyalty towards the 14th within Allen.

Soon however, within a few minutes, "Allen" began to stir and woke up, sitting up straight on the bed, his eyes glossed over with an unearthly look.

Down in the bar of the inn that they were in, Drake and Kanda played chess quietly without too many words between each other.

'Your turn.' Drake said as he moved his pawn to block Kanda's knight from capturing Drake's rook.

Kanda for his part was staring with an incredible intensity at the chessboard, or perhaps he was staring at the chess pieces, Drake couldn't really tell.

'_He's taking this _way_ too seriously.' _Drake thought as he leaned back on his chair.

Kanda ground his teeth inside his mouth silently as he eyed the chessboard carefully; he saw that Drake was incredibly relaxed and nonchalant about the whole game, as he scanned the board, his eyes widened when he saw an opening to get one up on Drake since neither had captured any of the other's pieces. He gave a quick glance at Drake, before making his move, capturing one of Drake's undefended pawns.

'Your turn.' Kanda said with a smirk on his face.

Drake lifted an eyebrow as he saw Kanda capture one of his pawns, then he furrowed his brow as he leaned forward to look the chessboard over. He was about to make a move when the hair on the back of his neck stood up, his sixth sense was acting up again. Drake leaned back, and Kanda saw Drake's eyes turn from crimson red to a brighter shade of red and his pupils narrow into slits.

Kanda was taken aback by this transformation and inwardly jumped while maintaining an icy cold exterior. Drake ignored him and scanned his surroundings his eyes searching intently, thankfully no one seemed to notice his eyes, as they were too busy drinking or playing cards. Drake however, saw what was making him chill. He quickly jumped to his feet, surprising Kanda.

'Get up! The 14th has awoken.' He hissed at Kanda as he walked quickly away so as not to alarm anyone, once out of sight though he broke into a run, taking two steps of stairs at a time with each step he took, he was out of the stairwell and outside the room with Kanda hot on his heels, he knocked several times on the door while pressing his ear to it, the moment he felt someone close to the door, he leapt backwards and with a single powerful kick, sent the door flying off its hinges and barged into the room with his hand on his sword.

No sooner did he do that though then he saw Allen standing and looking at them calmly, as if nothing had happened, except he was not Allen.

'Neah…' Drake hissed angrily.

'Hello there Drake, nice day out isn't it?' The 14th in Allen's body taunted the much taller person before him.

'What have you done with Allen?' Drake demanded, the 14th laughed and tapped his head.

'He's right up here…dreaming.' He laughed.

Drake considered all his options for a very brief and passing moment; it took him only a split second to decide on the most effective and efficient method for taking out the problem.

He raised his left fist and slammed it into "Allen's" face with enough force to send him flying across the room and knock him out.

The movement and sound jolted Johnny awake from his sleep, he rubbed his eyes and yawned.

'What's going on?' He asked as he picked up his glasses and looked around the room, he was shocked to see Allen lying motionless face down on the floor.

'Allen! Are you alright? What happened?' He looked questioningly at both Drake and Kanda; Drake quickly grabbed Kanda and pulled him in front of himself.

'He did it.' Drake said nonchalantly.

'What?! Why you-' Kanda started shouting but was cut off as Drake tried to explain.

'They got into a really bad fight arguing about what to do next, and then Kanda completely lost his temper and punched Allen across the room to shut him up.' Drake said with a wide grin across his face while staring at Kanda as the latter reached boiling point.

'Why you-! I'll cut you up dammit!' Kanda shouted at the top of his voice as he drew Mugen and placed it threateningly at Drake's neck, the latter person simply maintained his shit-eating grin while Kanda looked just about ready to explode in anger.

'Er…so what happened?' Johnny asked as he rolled Allen over to check him.

Drake rolled his eyes, 'Neah aka the 14th took over Allen while he was sleeping, so I punched him out before he could do anything.'

'What?' Johnny said in shock, Kanda lowered his weapon slowly while still glaring a Drake, who once again ignored him.

'Give him a few minutes to wake up; in the meantime, you might want to look around for some headache pills.' Drake continued and then turned to Timcanpy.

'And you…just…' Drake tried to think of something to say as he pointed at the yellow golem, but then let his arm fall, 'never mind.' He muttered as he walked out and back down to the bar.

'Call me when he wakes up.' He said as he walked down the stairs.

A few minutes later when Allen woke up with a splitting headache, the group gathered in the bedroom to make plans for the future.

'So what happens now?' Allen asked while rubbing his aching head.

'Drake was saying that he would follow us back to the Order to protect you.' Kanda half-snickered.

'Actually no I've changed my mind.' Drake said, both Allen and Kanda stared at him.

'What…have you chickened out?' Kanda sneered.

'No, I just realized that your problem with the 14th needs to be sorted out first.' Drake replied.

'Well I'm open to suggestions.' Allen said as he rolled his eyes.

'I know a place where we might be able to seal the 14th and prevent him from awakening.' Drake said, this surprised everyone.

You could hear a feather drop.

'Why didn't you tell us earlier!' Kanda demanded angrily.

'Because I only just thought of it.' Drake said in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

'What does it involve?' Allen asked.

'I don't know, I haven't seen said person in years now, it probably involves lots of pain, blood, screaming…you know the works…' He trailed off.

Allen gulped and tried to say something, 'Then what are we waiting for? Let's go already!'

'Oh that, we're-well _I'm_ waiting for the train which arrives in the next…' He took a quick glance at his watch, 'hour give or take a few minutes.'

'Then shouldn't we start moving towards the train station now?' Allen asked impatiently.

'The train stations' just over there.' Drake remarked as he pulled back the curtain and pointed at a building a few blocks away.

'Oh…' Allen muttered as he continued rubbing his head.

The four of them sat in silence for a moment before Drake said, 'anyone wants to play chess?'

An hour of chess with Johnny later, in which the scientist won twice fairly handily within fifty minutes, they were standing at a train station watching the train pull into its dock.

'Where are we going?' Johnny asked.

'England, specifically the county of Wiltshire.' Drake replied.

'Why there?' Johnny continued.

'A friend of mine lives there, she's a witch, and hopefully she can help us or something.' Drake said as the train halted and its doors were opened.

'Eh… a witch?!' Both Johnny and Allen cried out.

'Yes. A witch…why are you so surprised?' Drake inquired.

'Well…' Allen said.

'Look kid, you know that a magical substance called "innocence" exists, you know that it was created by someone to fight to Earl and his armies, you know that its antithesis can be bonded with humans to create transhumans, you know that specially trained humans can wield magic…so why the hell are you so surprised?' Drake growled beneath his breath.

Allen had to admit that he had no answer to that.

'Well what are we waiting for?' Drake said as he boarded the train, the rest quickly followed suit.

_Sometime later…_

The four of them were standing outside of a single story, rickety-looking brick house; it had a chimney with wisps of smoke emerging from it, a red tiled roof, and two windows at the sides of a wooden door.

'This is it.' Drake remarked as he stepped forwards and rapped his knuckles on the door.

'Who is it?' Came a soft voice from inside.

'Madam Ling? It's Drake.' Drake said.

The four heard some footsteps and saw the door open, Allen half-expected to see some gnarly old woman that was nothing but skin and bones and a long nose. Instead he saw the exact opposite.

Madam Ling was a short, stout and plump woman; she had a chubby round red face, dark hair with white and grey streaks, a wide smile and an odd little nub of a nose completed her look.

'Ah Drake it's been such a long time, and see you've brought some friends, come in and make yourselves at home.' She grinned as Drake nodded to the other three, the whole lot moved in with Drake being forced to lower his head due to being taller than the door.

The interior of the house was quite cozy; it had a small stove sitting on one corner, a small bed directly opposite of it at another corner, a small table in the middle of the entire house, a bookshelf at one side, stacked beside were several chests and of course a fireplace where something was apparently cooking in a pot hung above it.

'Who are your friends by the way?' She asked.

'Allen, Kanda and Johnny.' Drake said, gesturing to each of them in turn.

'Ah I see, now to what to I owe the pleasure of this visit?' She continued as she took several chairs and put them around the place for all of them to sit on.

'He…' Drake pointed at Allen as he sat down, '…has something within him that needs to be sealed up properly.'

'Why didn't you just exorcise it from him?' Madam Ling queried as she poured tea for everyone from a kettle on the stove.

'It provides him with certain powers that are…_useful_, and also because it's a Noah, not just any demon, so I had no idea what might happen.' Drake replied.

'Ah, in that case perhaps it was wise for you to come here…' she trailed off before continuing, 'you mentioned the Noah, how goes the war?'

Drake looked around at the other three, who made somber faces at him before he replied, 'quite badly to say the least.'

'What a shame, I figured it would be over once you started pulling out all the stops.' She shook her head and sighed.

Drake ignored the stunned looks he got from the other three, 'I haven't pulled out all the stops yet, the Earl can only be truly put back in hell if he is defeated by the innocence.'

'Mm yes, that is quite the sad thing; I can only imagine how it must feel for you, having to rely on these young men instead of your own strength.' She gave a small smile.

'You have no idea…' Drake muttered darkly as he glared around the room, his crimson orbs flashing from the scientist to the exorcist to the about-to-be-awakened Noah, Johnny looked embarrassed, Kanda gave a "che" sound and Allen simply swallowed unevenly.

'So which Noah inhabits this young boy here?' Madam Ling asked as she sat down to enjoy her tea.

'The 14th.' Drake answered.

'Ah…the adopted one is he not?' Madam Ling sighed.

'Yes…the adopted one, and the one who rebelled and tried to seize power from the Earl, at the end of the war he'll have to go too.' Drake stated.

'Indeed, but I believe it is enough time for talk…' She said as she sat up and moved over to the bookshelf where she began scanning through the books, '…now just let me find my book of seals.'

'Will the process be painful?' Allen asked with a slight quiver.

'That depends dear; it is very much like getting a tattoo, I simply have to scar you to carve it onto you, so it depends on whether you view the process of tattooing as being painful.' She answered as she continued scanning.

'You said it would be very painful.' Allen said as he looked at Drake who was slouching in his chair.

'I've never personally gotten _any _of these enchantments or seals or whatnot on me, so I had no idea what it was going to be like, I thought it best to prepare you for the worst.' Drake rolled his eyes.

'_Really…' _Allen thought as he leaned back in his chair and tried to relax.

A minute or so later, Madam Ling pulled a rather large and dusty book from the shelf and blew a great cloud of dust from its surface.

'My my, I have not touched this for many years now…' She said as she put it on the table on began to flick through it slowly until she settled on a page.

'The process could take quite a long time; would you please remove your shirt and lie down on that bed over there? And oh my…' She said as she gestured over to the small bed by the corner, but was then surprised when she noticed Allen's wound that was caused by Kanda's blade.

Allen gave a weak smile, 'It's nothing don't worry about it.'

'Hm…I think I can give something later to help with that and the wounds you will sustain from the sealing…is the Noah conscious now?' She asked.

This time Drake interrupted, 'Well I punched his lights out when he took over for a while.'

'How long will it take?' Allen asked as he followed her instructions.

'Oh quite long actually, a few hours at a minimum, if you don't struggle too much that is.' Allen noticed a slight cackle in her voice and shivered at that, 'or if you'd like, we can do it a bit at a time so that you can take time to recover…the choice is yours.' She said.

Allen looked at the trio, Drake shrugged, 'your choice Allen, but you know the Earl won't wait for you.'

'Then…I think we'll do it in one shot.' He said a little weakly.

'Well…' Drake said and looked at his watch, 'its noon now, you have the whole afternoon…' He looked at Madam Ling, 'best get cracking…oh and Allen?'

'Yeah?'

'I think it's in everyone's best interests if we all hurry up…so try _not_ to struggle.' Drake finished as he got off his chair and onto the ground, using his bag as a pillow, he lay on the ground and propped his legs up on the chair.

_One afternoon later…_

Allen sat on the bed gingerly; his entire body was raw and was bleeding in some parts while the skin peeled in other parts, most of his upper body was covered in various dark markings that swirled, bent, curved, joined and separated at various parts.

It was already dark out when Madam Ling had finished, and Drake was fairly anxious that they be on their way, Madam Ling simply shook her head when he tried to leave.

'I know you are in a hurry…you always are, but Allen needs to rest and heal for a bit, to speed the process along…' She said as she took a chest from the stack and opened it, taking out a small transparent bottle with a red liquid inside and handed it to Allen, 'this will help you heal faster, but you still need to rest for the night.'

Allen took the cap of the bottle and drank it, it tasted very bitter and stung his throat with a fiery sensation, he gasped as he withdrew his mouth and wiped it of a small drop that ran down his chin, but he was surprised when he already began to feel the pain from the whole afternoon of tattooing slowly fading away bit by bit.

'What is this?' He asked Madam Ling.

'It's a healing liquid; it heals all physical injuries regardless of how severe _including _amputations, look at your wound.' She answered.

Allen looked at the wound in his side and was shocked to see that it was slowly closing itself up.

'Whoa…err…how can I thank you?' Allen asked.

'With a good night rest and recovery, you should be fully healed in the morning, and you can stay here in the meantime.' She said with a smile.

'Right ok.' Allen nodded, he was beginning to feel sleepy anyway from the stress of the afternoon, and then his stomach growled noticeably, turning his face red.

Madam Ling laughed heartily when she heard that, 'Well I'm cooking up something now for all of you, so please stay for the night won't you?'

Drake sighed and nodded in defeat, Kanda and Johnny were both slowly waking up from their afternoon naps.

Johnny yawned and rubbed his eyes sleepily, and then he noticed Allen, 'Oh Allen! Are you alright? How did it go?' He asked frantically.

'Don't worry Johnny it went fine, I just need to rest for the night.' Allen reassured him.

'Oh thank goodness for that.' Johnny relaxed; Drake rolled his eyes at the sight, which did not go unnoticed.

'Come now Drake, they're just young babes compared to us, not even proper adults, let them live in the light a little longer.' She said quietly while she stood beside him.

Drake wrinkled his nose and stared at her with his arms folded, 'the sooner they learn the better.' He said simply.

'And yet you would never abandon your own friends if it came to that.' Madam Ling said with a small smirk.

'You don't know me.' Drake muttered as he turned away.

'Still so bitter, cold and cynical, life is not a bed of roses, but it is not a bed of pins and needles either.'

'Life…is just a beautiful lie for the deluded, death…comes for everyone' Drake looked over his shoulder and hissed as he made went out the door and closed it behind.

'And yet you still live…' Madam Ling sighed as Kanda walked up beside her.

'Where's he going?' He asked.

'For a walk…to clear his head presumably.' She shook her head and went to the stove to tend to her pots and pans.

_The next morning…_

Allen got up from his space on the floor; sunlight was already streaming through the two windows, he was surprised when he found that he felt no pain at all, and even felt fully refreshed, he lay there quietly for a while to enjoy the feeling, it had been a very longtime since he had felt it.

When he finally got up, he noticed that both Madam Ling and Drake were already up and sitting at the table, Madam Ling saw him get up and smiled a kind smile at him.

'Good morning dear, how do you feel?' She asked.

'Very good actually.' Allen said as he stood up, he checked his body and noticed that all of the bleeding, peeling skin had repaired itself, even his wound from Kanda's sword was completely healed up with only a thin scar to mark it.

'So where to next?' Allen asked the stony-faced Drake.

'The Black Order, you can't fight alone Allen, you aren't strong enough…not yet anyway.' He said the last part with a curious gleam in his eye.

Allen sighed, he would rather not go back to the Order and suffer Leverrier and his cronies again, but Drake did make quite a lot of sense.

'Alright then.' He said, Drake grinned as he checked his watch.

'The next train out of here is an hour away, we better get moving.' He smirked.

**Well? What do you think? **

**Reviews are appreciated…as always.**


	18. Chapter 17: Enemy Mine

**Someone has been telling me that I have bad grammar and spelling errors and punctuation problems, so this time, I ran it through a writer friend of mine (he's on fictionpress and is a better writer than me), so **_**hopefully**_** that ironed out most of the kinks.**

**I'm pretty sure those who are tropers will recognize the title's meaning.**

**Enjoy please.**

**Don't own -man**

Allen swallowed hard as the group approached the dockyard from which the Black Order operated its boats to deliver people to and from the island on which it was based. He had not dreamt anymore since the day he had been tattooed all over with the strange markings, he had also gotten a haircut and looked much better than he had than when Kanda and Johnny had found him.

Still though, he had to be careful, being the host of one of the Noah family, he was still very much wanted by the Black Order, he and the group had dodged a number of Central Agents -one of them barely- on the way back to the Black Order headquarters, but now they stood just a fair distance away from the special dock that was used only by the Black Order exorcists and finders whenever they needed to come and go to the headquarters for whatever reason.

Thankfully though, Drake had made him move around in a disguise most of the way in order to avoid any form of instant identification from the agents of Central, it consisted of using a special powder to hide the scar that ran from his forehead through his left eye and down his cheek, and a wig which gave him his original brown hair instead of his fairly visible white hair.

Add to that the fact that somewhere along the way, they had been found by Howard Link, recognizing that they were bringing Allen back to the Order; he had joined up once again as Allen's personal bodyguard, and Kanda kept his mouth tight-lipped on what Drake had told him earlier. Drake too, did not have any apparent personal grievance against the inspector, and he too did not tell of his chat with the inspector.

At the moment, the group could see a couple of boats standing by and several finders milling about the area. In particular, Kanda recognized a man sitting by the pier on a chair and reading a newspaper as the controller of the boats and immediately walked up to him, only to be stopped by Drake.

'What excuse are you going to come up with when he asks you about us?' He asked.

Kanda glared at him, 'Get out of my way, I'll think of something.'

Drake moved back and let him proceed.

'Hey, I need to get a boat to the Black Order Headquarters.' Kanda said with a stern voice.

The man looked up from his newspaper and eyed Kanda suspiciously for a moment before grinning and getting up, 'Ah I recognize you, and you're one of them exorcists eh? No problem, but who are your friends there?' He said, gesturing towards Allen, Johnny and Drake.

'Oh…they're…uh…' Kanda tried to come up with something, but having almost no social skills, his brain simply blanked itself out as he tried to come up with an excuse.

Drake meanwhile, watched the exchange impatiently from some way behind, he tried hard not to laugh and turned around to face the other three as he covered his mouth, 'He hasn't a clue about how to lie has he…' He snickered.

'Probably just go up there and say "Give me a ride or I'll cut you to pieces!"' Drake muttered the last part in a mock dark tone.

'He _is _an anti-social bastard after all.' Allen stated.

Meanwhile, Kanda's eye twitched as his mind fought to come up with an explanation, as the man who controlled the Black Order's docks waited for it while giving him a slightly suspicious look.

And then Kanda finally came up with something, 'the short one and the tall one are fellow exorcists, and the one with glasses is a scientist who joined us for a day out.' He was not technically lying in any given sense, Johnny really was a scientist after all, Allen was a _former_ exorcist, and Drake…well he did not really know _what_ exactly Drake was anyway, but it worked for him.

By this time though, Drake had stopped feeling amused at Kanda's predicament, he was now feeling quite annoyed, and with that in mind in strode quickly over to where Kanda and the man were conversing.

'What's taking so long?' He asked from behind Kanda.

Kanda spun around and was about to come up with an angry retort when the man spoke, 'well mister I haven't the faintest clue who you are, so I can't really be letting you just dance into the Black Order just like that.'

Before Kanda could say anything else, Drake completed his hijacking of the conversation.

'Excuse me?' Drake said angrily as he stood right in front of the man, using his height to intimidate him and bringing his face right down to the man until he could feel the man's breath, 'We have just come back from a really annoying day involving lost money, bar fights and akuma, we are really tired and exhausted, it is getting late and dark, we want to go home to a nice meal and rest, so you get me a boat now or I'll see to it personally that someone hears about this!' He ranted angrily in front of the man's face.

The man gulped but then stood up to face Drake as best as he could…which was not a lot considering Drake stood head and shoulders above him.

'Look here mister, I'm-' He started but Drake once again interrupted.

'Oh so you want to "look here mister" me? Do you want me to get on the phone with the supervisor? Or perhaps you want me to take this to central for obstruction of duty?' Drake ranted again in front of the man's face while using his hands to make wild gestures.

The man turned fairly pale at the mention of central, 'O-of course not! Err…I'll get a boat ready right now sir!' And he quickly scampered off.

Drake shook his head and sighed, 'You need to work on your persuasion skills.' He told Kanda.

'Shut the hell up.' Kanda replied angrily, Drake rolled his eyes at him.

A couple of minutes later, the five were well on their way to the island where the Black Order was based.

Allen leaned over the front of the boat, quietly contemplating his return, and all the friendly faces he would see again, and then he saw the face of the inspector Leverrier and he frowned, remembering the harshness of the inspector and the pain he had been subject to until Tyki Mikk and Road Kamelot had broken him out.

'Let me guess, thinking about meeting your friends, and the inspector.' Drake derailed his train of thought.

Allen turned and looked at Drake, who was staring at him with his arms folded while leaning on the railing of the boat.

'You shouldn't think too much, it's unhealthy for one's body.' Drake remarked, before going back into the inside of the boat.

Allen had no idea how to respond to that.

_Several minutes later…_

They left the boat and walked up to the massive structure that was the current headquarters of the Black Order, Allen had dropped his disguise to reveal his signature scar and white hair. By this time, it was mostly dark already, so there was no one else outside the Order but them.

All of them except Drake were quite nervous, in particular Johnny and Howard Link, both were no longer technically a part of the Order and Central respectively. Johnny had left to pursue Allen, and Howard had been given instructions from Leverrier himself to find and protect Allen, although Howard was better at hiding his emotions.

'Why are we standing outside?' Drake quizzed.

'Ah, I don't think we can just barge in can we?' Johnny said.

'Yeah…they're probably going to call Central in or something.' Allen remarked quietly.

'…In that case…hey Kanda.' Drake said as he looked at said person, Kanda turned to face him.

'You have that flying communication device thing right? Contact supervisor Komui Lee inside and get him to come to the town to pick us up.'

'I don't think the supervisor has his own golem does he? We should contact another exorcist inside the building.' Allen commented.

'Or we could go into town and contact him from there, and give him the good news.' Drake sarcastically finished the discussion.

A couple of minutes of trekking through the small forest that separated the Order from the Town that was also on the island, the group found an inn with a phone.

Kanda fished out his golem from his coat pocket and tried to ring up the supervisor.

_Inside the Black Order HQ…_

Supervisor Komui Lee was fast asleep at his desk when the phone began to ring repeatedly, being the person he was, Komui did not move a muscle and simply stayed fast asleep.

Section chief of the first science division Reever Wenhamm on the other hand, was wide awake –albeit sleepily- and could hear the phone ringing quite loudly from where he was seated in his messy and cluttered office. He knew that Komui's secretary Bridget Fey was out doing something, which meant that the phone would ring endlessly on and on without anyone answering.

Sighing, he got up from his desk and walked all the way over to Komui's desk where the supervisor remained fast asleep and muttered in his ear, 'Lenalee's getting married.'

As if by magic, the supervisor jumped up and awoke screaming, 'NO MY DEAR PRECIOUS LENALEE HOW COULD YOU!'

'Supervisor! The phone!' Reever said urgently, gesturing at the ringing phone.

'Oh I see, thank you Reever now go back to work.' Reever hung his head in resignation and headed back to this office.

'Hello?' Komui said into the phone.

'Hey stupid supervisor-' Kanda started but was cut off by a cry from Komui.

'Kanda?! Where are you?! Have you found-' it was now Kanda's turn to interrupt, his outburst had also caused Reever to leap out of his depression and come running to the office, along with the other scientists, all of whom crowded around the supervisor's desk.

'Shut up stupid supervisor and listen! I have the bean sprout and Johnny with me; we can't just walk into the Order with Central crawling around so we need you to pick us up from the town.' Kanda shouted into the phone.

At this, Komui gave a quick look around the room to ensure that there were no Crow or central agents in the room before returning to it, 'look, inspector Leverrier has gone back to central headquarters for a meeting, there aren't that many central agents around, so I think it's safe if you just wait at the entrance to the order.'

'Why can't you just pick us up from the town?' Kanda demanded.

'Because I'm quite lazy and tired, so I'll meet you guys outside in a few minutes ok?' Komui said and hung up before Kanda could say anything else.

'Well?' Reever asked with concern on his face,

Komui smiled at him and said, 'He's back, Kanda, Allen and Johnny are back.'

_In the inn…_

'Damn it!' Kanda swore loudly and walked over to where the group was sitting.

'We have to go back to the Order's entrance; he'll pick us up from there.' He explained.

Drake rolled his eyes, sighed and stood up, 'you heard him, move it troopers.' He kicked Allen and Johnny's legs lightly.

A few minutes later, the five stood outside the Order's entrance awaiting Komui's appearance.

They were soon rewarded when the doors swung open ever so slightly and Komui appeared with a bright smile gracing his face and his arms wide open.

'Welcome back you guys.' He smiled as he shook hands with Allen and Johnny, and then stopped with shock when he saw Howard Link.

'Howard Link! But you're supposed to be dead.' Said person smirked.

'Inspector Leverrier commanded that I disappear and search for Allen, so I did, and that's why I'm here with him.' He explained.

'Ah…' Komui breathed a sigh of relief, and then he came up to a dark figure, wearing a black long coat with a hood shrouding his face, a pair of crimson orbs stared from the darkness.

'And you are…?' Komui asked with a hand outstretched.

'Drake…just Drake.' Drake replied and took Komui's hand lightly.

'Well I guess you all can come in and explain all that's happened, now that most of the Order is asleep and Central isn't _really_ present.' Komui laughed heartily, it was really good to see all of them again.

After a quick walk through the Black Order, they arrived at Komui's office where a hastily erected banner with the words "WELCOME BACK" scrawled on; Komui had sent away the entire science division so that they would not create a stir in the Order and so that it would not be crowded.

After a summarizing all the events thus far, with Kanda and Drake inconspicuously leaving out certain bits of it, Komui sighed in content.

'Well then, welcome to the Black Order, I assume you'll need accommodations for the night?' He chuckled.

'Yeah…I really need to sleep…and eat.' Allen said with a smile.

Komui laughed, 'sorry but Jerry has already closed I think, you'll have to wait until morning comes.'

Then he turned to Drake, 'and you…?'

'I'll just…take whatever empty room you have at the moment I guess.' Drake shrugged.

'That can be arranged.' Komui smiled, but deep down he felt strangely fearful of Drake, he could almost feel some kind of evil emanating from the man, but he dropped it in his mind.

'Well then goodnight to all of you, see you in the morning.' Komui smiled.

_The next morning…_

The whole Order was abuzz with the news of Allen's return, a few were relieved. Most on the other hand were sickened that the Noah had returned.

Komui had gotten Jerry to place his cooked food inside his room so that Allen could eat in peace, he also personally escorted the group to his office, on the way a few finders and other personnel muttered dark comments or insults, but otherwise all was well.

As Allen and Timcanpy ate through the food hungrily, the others sat down on the chair right in front of Komui, to give a fuller explanation of the story. When Drake got to the part where Madam Ling sealed the Noah, Komui was completely surprised.

'It's possible to do that?' He exclaimed loudly.

'Yeah…it probably won't hold him back forever though, but it's a good temporary measure.' Drake said.

Komui nodded, 'then who are you and why are you here?'

'I'm here to cut you a deal, as to who I am, that's a secret, that I will reveal, in due time.' Drake said.

Komui frowned a little, 'I see, so what "deal" is this anyway?'

'I'm here to ally with the Order, not to join it, to that end I will be a willing participant in any missions, but you will have no direct control over my actions, understood?'

Before Komui could answer, his secretary Bridget entered, 'excuse me supervisor, Inspector Leverrier is here to see you.'

And before anyone could say anything, Inspector Leverrier was through the door with his agents.

'Supervisor Komui how goes…what?' Leverrier was stunned to see Allen, Link, Kanda, Johnny and an unnamed fifth person looking at him, all five had rather different reactions to the inspectors' presence.

For Allen, it brought up memories of the jail he had been thrown in, and the smugness with which he had been tormented.

Howard Link simply stood straight and saluted.

Johnny remembered that he was the same person who had jailed Allen and was disturbed.

Kanda simply glared at him.

'Oh look its old toothbrush moustache, how're you doing?' Drake grinned at him from where he was seated.

While Leverrier was pleased to see his agent with Allen and equally pleased to see the second exorcist and the scientist back under their control, he was still suspicious of Allen and had no idea who the newcomer was.

So he did the natural thing, 'arrest Allen Walker! He could be a danger to us!' He ordered his guards.

Drake vaulted over the couch and immediately confronted the inspector, 'you will do no such thing while I'm present.' He explained.

'And who're you? Don't you know who I am or where you are now?' Leverrier half laughed and half spat.

Drake returned the laugh, 'I am more than you ever will be, and I know that I'm in a building filled with half-assed humans fighting a losing war against a monstrously powerful foe, so why don't you sit down and we can sort this out peacefully. Drake hissed between gritted teeth.

Growling angrily, Leverrier reluctantly complied and ordered his guards to stand down, and then he took his place beside Komui, who was unnerved by his appearance.

'Now that you both are here, I'm proposing an alliance with the Order, my terms are simple, I will willingly participate in any missions you give me, but you will not control me as you would your subordinates…if you wish to provide accommodation for me that is fine, but not necessary.'

'No.' Leverrier said before Komui could open his mouth.

Drake raised his eyebrows, 'which part?'

'You need to…_specify_ control.' Leverrier smirked.

'Oh, it simply means that you won't throw me in jail if I end up committing genocide, and I'm allowed a free hand to do whatever I want, as and when I like, oh and I should be able to leave the island when I want to as well.'

This time Komui said something, 'I think that's a fairly simple arrangement if you will agree inspector.'

'What?!' Leverrier shouted, 'This is outrageous! We can't just have a loose cannon going as and when he likes, how do we even know you're working with us?'

'Look at it this way inspector,' Drake leaned forward from his position on the couch, 'you're _losing_ this war, that's a fact, the losses you sustained when Suman betrayed the order haven't yet been replaced, and your third exorcist crap thing didn't work out did it? So the way _I _see it, you don't really have a choice do you?' He allowed himself a small smile when he said the last part.

Both Komui _and _Leverrier grimaced at that, it was an unspoken truth that the Black Order was very clearly losing the war, it had lost large amounts of manpower both during Suman's betrayal and when the original Headquarters had been invaded, thankfully it had not been so bad when they were invaded a second time. The rest of the room was very quiet

'You're clutching at strings and straws now I believe…so do we have an agreement? Drake said while leaning back into the couch.

Komui swallowed and looked at Leverrier, it was the sort of look that said, 'we have no choice', Leverrier returned the look, and growled out what sounded like an agreement, but then something apparently came to his mind.

'We'll provide the accommodation for you, if you don't mind that is.' He said with a slightly mischievous grin.

Drake searched his face, and could easily see what the inspector was thinking, 'No problem in that case, I'll stay here at the Order.'

Komui directed the reinstated Johnny to lead him to his room while he continued with Allen and Kanda.

'Allen, could you show me the markings you got?' He asked.

Allen complied, with food still in his mouth he took off his shirt, revealing the various markings that decorated his upper body.

'So…_these_ are what prevent the 14th from awakening?' Komui continued.

'I guess so, I've haven't had any trouble with him so far, so I guess we could say its working.' Allen answered.

'Hm…and how _did_ you get these markings Allen?' Leverrier questioned with a curious gleam in his eye.

'Drake has a friend who's a witch, she did this for me.' Allen replied with scorn evident in his voice.

'A witch huh? Interesting…' Leverrier remarked quietly to himself.

Komui cleared his throat loudly in order to get everyone's attention, 'In that case I think we can rest assured that Allen will not awaken as the 14th while he has those markings, and thus I conclude he is no threat to us.' Komui finished.

'But…' Leverrier said, 'Since his awakening depends on the markings, I think we need to have someone watching him don't you think supervisor?'

Komui swallowed hard, 'Indeed inspector, perhaps Howard Link would like to take up the task once again?' Komui had seen that the inspector and Allen had built up a rapport with each other and were quite comfortable in each other's presence.

'Yes, you have the task Howard Link.' Leverrier commanded, Howard saluted Leverrier and nodded.

'Well then that's done that I believe; Allen, currently the other exorcists are out on missions, they will be back in a few days time, for now just get some rest until we call you up ok?' Komui assured Allen.

'Ok.' Allen said and left the room with his food in tow.

The rest of the day passed with Allen going back to the cafeteria for more food, Kanda on the other hand, went back to training, and he noticed that his arm had stopped acting up when he had returned to the Order, he was unable to figure out why though, and gave up after a while.

No one saw Drake for the rest of the day.

**I imagine Drake's long coat to be a duster with a hood specifically.**

**I figure the Black Order is incredibly low on manpower since a whole lot of exorcists got wiped out when Suman went rogue, so I used that idea for the deal.**


	19. Chapter 18: Morning Disturbance

**I was in NSW, Australia for two weeks, nice place I suppose, nice people too except for the one smug airport guy.**

**Enjoy.**

**Don't own D. gray-man**

Allen opened his eyes slowly as he woke up from yet another dreamless night's sleep; he sat up slowly, yawned and stretched his stiff muscles. His ever-present guard Howard Link was sleeping on the floor beside him, and did not give any indication of being aware of Allen's awakening.

It had been a few days since he had reached the Order with Drake, Kanda and Johnny; in those few days he had occupied himself by either training with Kanda or stuffing himself with food from a very delighted Jerry. He had only seen Drake sporadically since their arrival, usually out of the corner of his eye or when he was just about to disappear around a corner.

Still, he had reason to be really happy today, he had heard from Komui that Lenalee, Miranda and Krory were scheduled to come back in the morning from their latest mission; he was really looking forward to seeing them again.

Allen smiled to himself as the pictures of his comrades entered his head; he was especially looking forward to seeing Lenalee-he had been thinking about her throughout his time on the run from the Order and Apocryphos. She would not have to worry anymore about him.

He felt heat rising to his cheeks; he had had a crush on her ever since they met when she prevented Kanda from cutting him on his first introduction to the Order.

Now though, he felt his stomach growling loudly, signaling his hunger and his need for food. He tried to get up as quietly as possible so as to try and see if he could dodge his bodyguard…

No dice unfortunately, Link was wide awake as soon as Allen's feet touched the floor; Allen gave Link a dirty look although the inspector was no fazed in the least by Allen and simply walked over to the wardrobe where he took out his uniform. Allen did the same to his own wardrobe and both men got dressed quickly.

A few minutes later, Allen and Link were at a table in the cafeteria. Allen as usual had a mountain of food stacked up while Link had several cakes all over the table, at the same time, both were given shifty and suspicious glances from everyone else at the Order, it was common knowledge that Allen had a Noah within him, although Komui had given his assurances to the Order, most were very accepting of it.

At the back of his mind, Allen wondered what Drake was up to, the secretive and dark warrior was seldom seen anywhere on the Order's premises, although when Allen had checked his room he had found that all of Drake's belongings were still in place.

He soon forgot about it though, and went back to eating.

_By the Order's dockyard…_

Lenalee smiled as she looked at the Black Order's Headquarters, she was finally home, along with Krory and Miranda. Her thoughts drifted towards a certain white-haired exorcist, she struggled to contain her emotions for him, he had left with no trace or warning, only a simple phrase telling her that he loved everyone at the Order.

As they made their way to the building, she could feel her eyes beginning to tear up even though she tried her best to hold them back; it had already been a whole month since Allen had disappeared, and she was starting to lose hope that she would ever see him again.

As they walked through the door and came to a junction in corridors, at this moment, Allen was just walking to the training grounds to train since he felt lethargic for not having been moving much for the past few days, he was accompanied as always by Howard Link.

So it just so happened that all of them would cross paths at this junction, Allen had been rubbing the back of his head, thinking about his next action while Lenalee had her head down thinking about Allen, it was not until they were a few meters from each other that Allen looked up and noticed his crush. He saw that her hair had grown halfway back to its original length, and she still looked as beautiful as when he had left her. And he recognized the other two exorcists with her.

'Lenalee! Miranda! Krory!' He shouted at the top of his voice.

The three exorcists jumped in complete surprise, having never heard that particular voice in such a long time.

Lenalee turned her head slowly, scarcely believing what she saw. She saw the face that she thought of so much, the smile that she loved so much, and the scar that she hated so much.

And before anyone knew it, he rushed over to him almost jumped into a tearful hug; Miranda and Krory were not far behind and the four embraced each other tightly, especially Allen.

'Thank goodness you're safe, I was so worried…' Lenalee choked.

'It's alright…it's alright…I'm here now.' Allen said soothingly as he stroked Lenalee's hair.

'Not just Lenalee, _all _of us were worried sick when you disappeared and when the Order marked you.' Miranda tearfully said.

'I'm so glad you're back!' Krory wailed loudly.

Lenalee did not hear any of this this, she simply held Allen close to her body and as tightly as she could, and he reciprocated it by squeezing her equally tightly. But when she opened her eyes, she was stunned by what she saw behind Allen.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl for Lenalee as she watched with widened eyes as Drake moved from one side of the junction perpendicular to the corridor she was in slowly, he did not seem to notice her as first, but midway through his movement, he turned his head to stare at her without stopping his movement, and then he disappeared around the corner.

'…Hang on a minute!' She yelled suddenly and broke free from her embrace with Allen, and rushed around the corner, only to find that Drake had disappeared into thin air.

'Was I seeing things?' She wondered aloud.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head to see Allen who gave a small smile at her.

'No, it was exactly who you think you saw, he's allied with us and is staying at the Order.' He told her, she gave him an incredulous look.

'It's…complicated.' Allen made an awkward smile as he rubbed the back of his head.

'Ok…then why does it seem like he's avoiding us?' Lenalee asked.

'Yeah…he does that a lot since he came here with me, his name is Drake by the way.' Allen continued his awkward smile.

Lenalee returned his smile and hugged him again, 'Well it's good to have you back Allen, rest well, I have to go and make coffee for my brother and the rest of the science division.'

'Hey! Why don't I come with you?' Allen said with a bright smile, Lenalee beamed a smile back to him.

'Ok, just wait for a moment, I won't take long.' She said sweetly and walked towards the cafeteria.

_Sometime later…_

Allen, Lenalee and Link stood outside the door to Komui's office, however, just as they were about to open it though, it burst open and there stood Komui with a big smile on his face, behind hi were all the scientists of the science division.

'Ah! Lenalee! So good to have you back!' He exclaimed loudly and squeezed her tightly.

'I wish I could throw a party to celebrate your homecoming!' He continued while she gasped for air in surprise.

'Brother!..you don't need to…' She choked out.

'But I must attend to work now! I'm about to show the science division a new creation of mine, and I see that you have brought coffee for me!... And saw Allen.' He added the last part slowly.

'New creation?' Allen looked at Reever, who shrugged in return.

'Who knows…but don't worry! We're going prepared this time!' Reever said with determination and held up some strange device that looked like a cannon.

So the entire group followed Komui who led them out of the back of the building and into a rather large looking warehouse hidden by the trees behind the Order.

'Does Central know about this?' Howard Link demanded when he entered.

'Ah no worries inspector,' Komui brushed him off, which made the inspector boil a little but he kept his mouth shut.

'Hey Supervisor, where're the lights?' Reever shouted into the darkness, they only heard Komui clear his throat in response.

'Ladies and gentlemen…I present to you…' Komui said, _'Pause for dramatic effect…' _He thought quietly.

'KOMURIN DESTROYER!' He shouted and switched on the lights triumphantly as fanfare played in his head.

The lights revealed a massive metallic humanoid, at least two stories tall. It had a box-shaped head with a single red eye, a bulky silvery-white body, and what looked like folded up wings on its back.

The silence was deafening.

Reever spoke-or rather-_screamed _first, 'ARE YOU INSANE SUPERVISOR?! DON'T YOU REMEMBER THE LAST TIME YOU BUILT SOMETHING LIKE THIS?!'

'Eh? What happened?' Komui asked absent-mindedly.

'You nearly wrecked an entire town!' Reever panted as he caught his breath.

'Oh that.' Komui thought before continuing, 'Never mind that, this is different! It will not hunt down those who dare to touch my dear Lenalee -although I might build one for just such a purpose- it will aid our exorcists in battle! And hunt down the Akuma and the Noah family they serve!'

Everyone stared at him in response, the only thought running through their minds was, _'That's it, and the supervisor has gone off the deep end.'_

'What's going on schmucks?' A voice sounded from behind Allen, Howard and Lenalee.

Both spun around and were surprised by what they saw, there was Drake, except he was not dressed in his usual coat with his hood on his head, and they saw for the first time in clear light their dark ally.

Drake stood tall, at least two meters in height; he wore a black long sleeved polo shirt and a matching pair of black jeans, a pair of black military style boots and a single fingerless glove on his right hand to complete his outfit. He had dark, tan skin, slender cheeks, a pair of deep-set red eyes, a thin mouth, sharp nose and neatly cropped black hair with his fringe sticking out above his forehead, all of this set in a somber and dour looking round face.

He held a cup of coffee in his right hand and sipped from it every now and then, Lenalee noted from the color that he apparently took his coffee without cream.

'Well?' He gave a questioning look at both exorcists as Komurin Destroyer continued to be eyed with suspicion by all the scientists except for its creator.

'Oh...er… Komui has built this robot that will help us detect Akuma from a distance away. And even help us fight them!' Allen remarked as enthusiastically as possible despite knowing wht happened the last few times Komui had created such a robot.

Drake took a long sip from his cup, '…Really…' He remarked after a short pause.

Suddenly, Komurin Destroyer lighted up, 'Possible presence of Akuma detected,' it said, 'initiating scanning sequence.' A wide arc of green light descended from the robot's one eye and went over the entire room.

'Wha…?' Several people remarked as the beam passed through them, Allen on the other hand was beginning to panic, he still remembered his first day at the Order and his first encounter with Komurin was not looking forward to revisiting those times.

The arc passed up and down the room several times in quick succession before disappearing, and then a beam of light shot out and fixated on a very specific person at the back of the room.

Drake looked amused as the light shone on him, 'I think you need to improve your robot before you start operational use.' He told Komui.

'Impossible! I already checked everything completely before-' he was cut off when Komurin Destroyer began moving towards Drake.

'Suspect identified, initiating eradication procedures.' The robot said as it began moving towards

'Hold this.' Drake said as he shoved his cup at Lenalee while staring at the giant robot approaching them.

'Huh?' Lenalee answered.

'Ma'am hold it or wear it!' Drake shouted as the giant robot loomed over them.

Lenalee snatched the cup from Drake just as Komurin Destroyer raised one of its fists and thrust them forward, Allen and Lenalee leapt backwards and away from the resulting explosion of concrete while Drake back flipped into the air and landed in a kneeling position with his head down right on the limb the giant robot had thrust forward, he shot his head up to look at the robot's single eye.

Clenching his left claw tightly, he shot forward with an incredible burst of speed from his one leg placed forward, and in midair coiled his left arm back for a strike.

He snapped it forward and slammed his fist into the towering metallic construct with such force that it was thrown back across the warehouse and slammed through the wall on the opposite side and right out into the open fields outside the warehouse, and it did not get up. Everyone was so stunned by the sheer force that they were all in awe for a moment, and then Reever spoke up.

'Well I guess that's that I suppose, let's clean this up people!' He shouted as Drake landed on the ground lightly and easily without difficulty, but continued watching the collapsed metal contraption with interest.

'Oh please…' A voice rang out, attracting everyone's attention, 'Do you think Komurin would be so easily defeated?' He smiled with a terrible gleam in his eye.

Drake narrowed his eyes for a moment at the supervisor, and then a loud metallic whirring was heard, and everyone turned to see Komurin apparently getting up without difficulty and looking dangerously at Drake.

Aforementioned person apparently took it as some kind of challenge; he shrugged as if to say "bring it on", cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders before bringing up his clenched fists and putting an almost psychotic looking smirk on his face.

Komurin accepted the challenge and charged forward, blowing everyone and everything aside.

'Everyone get out of here!' Reever shouted as he leapt out of the metallic monstrosity's way.

Komurin aimed a punch straight at Drake, who this time, did not dodge or move, instead he held up both of his fists to block and took the full brunt of the robot's assault. Komurin continued on and on, pushing Drake all the way back to the far side of the room, Drake only prevented himself from smashing into the wall and beyond that by bracing one foot against the wall, which began to crack and slowly give way under the tremendous stress it was under.

'Drake! Are you alright?!' Allen shouted.

'Oh I'm perfectly fine…being pummeled by a giant robot is fun as hell!' Drake sarcastically responded and rolled his eyes.

'Right…' Allen muttered and activated his innocence, he was about to attack Komurin when he felt something prick his neck and felt his body start to go limp.

'Oh no…not…again…' He muttered quietly as he felt his legs give way from under him and he fell to floor in a heap.

'What?' Drake gave an incredulous expression as Allen dropped to the floor, and then he felt the wall buckle unsteadily from beneath his foot.

'_Crap.' _He thought to himself just before he felt himself go through several inches worth of reinforced concrete and out into the outdoors.

'Drake!' Lenalee shouted as she activated her innocence and was about to attack Komurin as well…

When she too, felt something prick her neck and felt her body start to sag, but not without fully realizing what had happened.

'Brother…why would you…' She gasped out and sank to the floor.

By this time, most of the science division had picked themselves up just in time to see the second exorcist go down, Reever spun his head and saw exactly what he knew it was.

Komui was standing amid the rubble, holding a blowpipe, and smiling triumphantly.

'My dear sweet Lenalee, I'm truly sorry for this but I can't let you destroy my creation.' He said softly, Reever had other ideas.

'GET HIM AND TAKE THAT BLOODY THING AWAY!' The science division chief hollered at the top of his voice, the science division immediately rushed and surrounded Komui and tried to take the blowpipe away from the man while he struggled to keep it.

Meanwhile, despite the battering he took from going through a wall, Drake sparred with the humongous mecha, easily matching its blows from its powerful and massive steel arms. The mecha, seeing this, tried a different tactic; it backed off for a bit, and then unveiled a lot of weapons from its arms and shoulders including a battery of shoulder cannons, and several missile launcher pods on its lower arms and wrists.

'Komurin combat mode complete, optimization for total destruction achieved, commencing annihilation of target.' It rattled off.

Drake eyes widened at this, _'Damn…' _He thought quietly.

Komurin then leapt into the air, using its foot thrusters to stabilize it, and then fired all of its weapons at once, raining missiles and laser-fire all over the area. Drake saw the entire lot of incoming ordinance and knew without a doubt that he had to take cover; he quickly darted out of sight into the nearby forest just as the area began exploding.

'Target has disappeared, assuming search pattern.' Komurin said as a wide beam of light came out of its one eye and it began searching the area like a spotlight.

'_I'm guessing I have to stay out of that?' _Drake rolled his eyes as the beam passed through the forest but couldn't penetrate the thick trunks and branches.

'Optical scanner failed, switching to close quarters attack.' Komurin said as he unveiled a set of flamethrowers from both its hands and immediately began blasting streams of flames all over the place.

'_Woah…someone better call the fire brigade…' _Drake thought, and then he noticed that the flames were getting dangerously close, but so too was Komurin.

'Time to end this.' Drake hissed quietly as he saw Komurin approach slowly, he could know feel the heat of the flames on his body.

Drake watched as Komurin approached, _'Closer…closer…closer…damn it's hot down here.' _He thought.

Then at the last possible second, just before the flames began licking the tree he was hiding behind, and when the giant robot was at its closest, Drake focused all of his strength into his legs, crouched, looked right at the arm closest to him.

Then he made a supernaturally fast jump straight at the closest arm.

Komurin could not react in time; Drake grabbed hold of the giant steel limb, and then flipped over it and twisted the entire limb free from the robot, while he hung in midair for a moment, he swung it like a bat and destroyed one set of the robots' shoulder cannons before landing and casting it aside.

Komurin was apparently taken by surprise for moment, it dropped to one knee and uttered in a monotonous voice, 'Critical hit, massive damage received, weapon systems impaired, target remains operational, switching to aerial mode.'

'What?' Drake remarked. With that, Komurin suddenly unfurled a set of thrusters and wings on its back and soared into the air.

By this time, the science division had fully tied and trussed Komui up like a mummy, now they headed outside with some weapons of their own to help; Reever wielded the cannon which was connected to a large battery on his back. When they headed out, they're jaws dropped at what they saw.

There was the newest addition to the Order, standing on bare ground while the forest raged in an unspeakably huge firestorm and what looked like a massive arm lying on the ground beside him, and then they saw Komurin Destroyer flying high in the air and looking down upon them as if they were annoying ants.

'Damn!' Reever snarled and aimed his cannon at Komurin, 'Take this you oversized hunk of metal!'

'Go chief!' The science division shouted as Drake stared at them.

Reever charged a shot and fired a yellow beam at the giant robot…

The beam contacted, doing the equivalent of nothing.

Reever was stunned, 'Well, that's never happened before.'

Meanwhile, the robot zeroed in on Reever , 'Hostile detected, threat level minimal, initiating capture and detainment sequence for further study.'

'Wha…? Reever responded with confusion, Komurin destroyer swept down and was about to grab him with its remaining arm when Drake grabbed it and pulled it away from the Australian scientist. Komurin responded by yanking its arm back, Drake held fast however, climbed onto the robot's arm and made a powerful leap straight for Komurin's shoulder. Komurin moved to the side to try and dodge but Drake was able to reach out with his left arm and just barely grab the robot's armpit and swing up and over onto its shoulder.

Drake immediately dashed for the robot's head, and then with his left claw, he smashed through the robot's one eye, reached as far back as he could, grabbed a hold of what he could, and with a single pull ripped a chunk of the inside of Komurin's head out.

'Major damage sustained. Optical scanner damaged. Switching to external sensors. Deploying smokescreen.' It uttered as dense clouds of smoke poured out of it that seemed to block out the sun and obscured everyone's vision including those on the ground.

'Dammit, I can't see a thing.' Reever coughed and hacked, 'Is everyone alright?' He called out and received affirmative answers from the team.

Just then, several slicing, metallic creaking and electrical sparking the smoke began to clear although it was still very dark and Reever looked up to try to see Komurin and Drake.

And then something heavy and metallic fell from the sky and made a heavy*THUD* noise and bounced a few times before rolling to a stop beside Reever.

He looked it over and recognized that it was the head of Komurin Destroyer, but where was the rest of the body?

He received his answer in a moment when he heard a loud metallic screech.

'Chief look out!' Someone cried out, Reever looked up just in time to duck and scramble away when the rest of the decapitated body of Komurin Destroyer thundered down in a cloud of dust.

When the dust settled, Reever saw Drake standing on the decapitated Komurin Destroyer's back looking none the worse for the wear; in fact he looked as though he had not received a single scratch during the entire fight.

'Better get the fire brigade for that.' He said nonchalantly as he walked past Reever while gesturing at the burning forest behind them.

_A little later…_

Reever and the science division were dismantling Komurin Destroyer piece by piece while Komui wailed endlessly about his now destroyed robot and Allen and Lenalee slowly recovered from the nerve agent Komui had used on them. Drake was rather sullen about the whole affair though.

'I wish you would've just kept my coffee safe.' He sighed, referring to the cup that had been smashed when Lenalee dropped it during the excitement.

'Don't worry about it; I can always make you a new one.' Lenalee tried to assure him.

Drake gave her an inquisitive look before saying, 'that's…not coffee.'

**If it comes across as a bit too painful to read and a little too over-the-top, sorry, I wanted to try something a bit lighter for once.**


	20. Chapter 19: Training Regime

**Nothing much to say, just another update, and a bit of backstory.**

**Don't own -man.**

_Drake gasped and felt himself fall as he felt his body being blasted with an enormous wave of heat. Even though it was hard to see, he could hear and feel everything, he heard the horrified anguished yells of husbands as they died in vain, the terrified desperate screams of women as they were mercilessly slaughtered the cries of babes torn from their mothers, the heat of the intense flames searing and charring the village._

_And then he saw her._

_She looked the same as she always did; she wore a long white, flowing robe and a white headscarf that concealed the entirety of her face but for her eyes, her tall, slim figure was crouched low beside a wooden house, in her arms she carried a baby wrapped in a black cloak, the babe was strangely silent and at peace amidst the churning inferno and chaos that he slept in._

_The woman paused and crouched lower to hide as a patrol of guards swept jogged pass and continued pulling people out of hiding places and brutally killing them despite their pleas._

_As soon as they had passed however, the woman quickly gathered herself and ran past into the opposite line of house with Drake close behind even though he knew how this would turn out, and continued this hopping all through the way through the small town, dodging burning debris and flames as she went._

_And then midway through the alley between two houses she stopped she stopped and ducked behind the wall of the still burning remains of a building, she then carefully looked around the wall with fear, Drake knew what she was looking at._

_Up ahead, at least fifty meters in front, a tall, slender, pale man with long hair stood in front of another, older man. The older man was on his knees and was being held by both his arms by two soldiers._

'_Please!' He begged with tears streaming from his eyes, 'no more! Haven't you had enough?! Just tell me what you want and let us be! We're only peaceful people with no wish for fighting!'_

'_No…' The pale man spoke softly as he knelt down on one knee and gripped the older man's chin roughly, 'it will not be enough…it will _never_ be enough, not until I find her…'He trailed off._

'_Where are you hiding her?!' He demanded angrily._

'_We have many women in this town-'He was cut off with a brutal kick to his stomach from the pale man._

'_Don't pretend!' He hissed, 'I have spent far…far too much time tracking her! I WILL NOT BE DENIED! Now where is the woman and her child?!'_

'_I don't know what you're talking about!' The older man insisted._

'_You know very well what I'm talking about! Now answer me you pitiless waste of flesh and bone! WHERE IS SHE?!'_

_The older man obviously knew that the game was up and that it was pointless to continue denying, he lifted his head, smirked…_

_And spat right in the pale man's face._

'_You'll never find her! She's far away already…who knows…?' He said triumphantly._

_The pale man snarled angrily, he stood up and took up a long spear, and drove it straight through the older man's head; the soldiers cast his limp body aside and looked at their commander._

_At this point, the woman cast her eyes away from the gruesome sight._

'_Search everywhere! She must be found! GO!' He shouted angrily before turning to the older man's lifeless corpse and muttering, 'useless waste of space.' He spat._

_Just then, there was a terrible sound, like something out of the depths of hell itself, a nightmarish cross between a screech and a roar. A massive black shadow fell from the sky and descended upon the burning town, from a churning mouth filled with fire, a towering inferno burst forth and incinerated everything and everyone in its path to a cinder._

_The soldiers scrambled for cover as a towering column of flame rapidly approached the pale man, he had no time to take cover, and he was engulfed in that tower of flame for a short moment before the flame wheeled and barreled in another direction and came right up to where Drake and the woman were standing._

_Before Drake knew it, it was right in front of him; he failed to run for it and felt a tremendous heat tear at his skin and flesh…_

Drake snapped his crimson eyes open wide, his body was bathed in sweat and his heart pumped in his chest rapidly, he found himself breathing incredibly hard. He sat up straight in bed and held his head with his right hand and shook his head a little while blinking rapidly to clear the remaining sleep out of his eyes.

'_Another nightmare…at least they're different for a change…' _He thought grimly to himself, and then the image of the woman came back into his mind and he recoiled in pain and anger.

'Dammit already! She's dead! Get over it!' He hissed quietly to himself.

Then he heard someone knocking at his door and a voice sounded, 'Um…Drake? Are you awake?' Lenalee asked.

'Oh great, what does _she_ want now?' Drake muttered to himself as he got up and walked towards the door.

In the few weeks that she had known him properly, the tall, thin, dark skinned man had remained cold and aloof, she mainly saw him during meal times and occasionally saw him walking silently through the corridors of the Black Order HQ but never really got the chance to talk to him, that day she resolved to try to find out more about him personally, instead of hearsay from Allen and Kanda.

Knowing his personality though, she had to come up with something to say that wouldn't cause him to slam the door in her face at the first instance he got; it did seem like the sort of thing he would do anyway.

So when Drake opened the door and the two stood staring at each other, she said what she had prepared beforehand.

'Do you want to spar?' She asked as firmly as possible without quivering too much, despite his somewhat thin figure, Drake could be quite imposing-and a little scary- due to his height, if he slammed the door in her face she would accept it, although she held a feeble hope he would accept.

Drake was still a little drowsy from sleep so the question did not fully register itself in his head, so the best he could come up with was a sharp and fast, 'what?'

Lenalee deflated in a way, she had hoped for a swift "yes" or "no" answer but now had to force out every word again.

'Would you like to spar with me?' She asked, much quicker this time.

Drake registered it fully this time, he considered his options for a moment, he could slam the door in her face and that would be the end of it, or he could agree and get dragged into something nefarious.

But he was interested in testing the mettle of one of the few females in the entire Order.

So he said, 'fine, just let me wash up a bit and I'll see you at the training area in a few.'

'Great!' She said, Drake rolled his eyes at her enthusiasm and shut the door.

'_Why do I get the feeling that this was a bad idea?' _She wondered to herself for a moment before shaking her head and walking off.

_A few minutes later…_

They were both standing inside a very large, circular structure with a domed roof, Drake noted that the diameter of the entire thing had to be at least a few hundred meters, and the height was also fairly impressive, at least three and a half by his own estimation.

'Taking in the scenery.' Lenalee teased him for a bit.

'Well…I guess I shouldn't be surprised…the _church_ is funding this little enterprise am I right?' Drake remarked, Lenalee noted that he said "church" with disgust evident in his voice.

'Well…yes.' Was all she could come up with.

'Hm.' Drake rumbled to no one in particular, before he reached with his right hand over his right shoulder and pulled his sword from the fabric that held it.

'Doesn't your coat get torn a lot doing that?' Lenalee asked.

'The fiber is magically enchanted to stitch itself back together, now stop asking questions and lets go.' Drake answered as he twirled his sword a few times, Lenalee noted that it was so long that every time he twirled it beside him, the blade made a metallic screeching along the floor with sparks.

'Innocence activate!' She called out firmly and felt her innocence form around her legs easily, after their transformation into a "crystal-type", they were no longer as painful and heavy to wear as before.

Drake smirked and ran at her, unleashing a powerful downward slash that she deflected with a backflip and soared into the large open space of the training room, she didn't count on Drake possibly being able to follow her in the air.

She was proven wrong in moments.

Drake ran at an incredible speed and took a massive jump straight at Lenalee, she barely reacted in time with a mid-air backflip while Drake swung his blade sideways, Drake's running jump was so strong that when he crossed over while falling to the other side of the room, he was still in mid-air, so he jammed he sword into the wall, flipped over and stood on it.

'_Fast!'_ Lenalee thought in amazement to herself.

'_Not bad, not bad at all…' _Drake thought to himself.

As they watched each other for a moment, Drake threw out his left claw in an open palm Lenalee watched with interest as red bolts of electricity sparked in his hand, gradually building up until it formed a crackling, sparking red ball.

Drake hurled the ball at her, she quickly crouched in the air and blasted away and along the floor before it could hit, just as she did though, at the same time Drake pulled his blade from the wall and kicked off in a dive straight at the female exorcist.

Seeing that it was too late to dodge, Lenalee steeled herself and brought both of her legs in front of her to block Drake's attack.

Drake's blade and the innocence "dark boots" met in an explosion of red energy that swept up the room. Drake proved the stronger of the two however, and with a powerful push sent Lenalee flying straight at the wall.

If this had happened months ago before she completely expended herself defeating the third exorcist and later evolved her innocence into a crystal type, she might have been seriously hurt. But in the aftermath on the assault on the Order and Allen's desertion, she had forced herself to undergo an incredibly rigorous training regime to improve her strength and reflexes, and it paid off.

Instead of flying back first into the wall, she flipped over, used dark boots to slow herself tremendously, and landed right on it with both of her legs and one arm in a tripod shape to spread the force of impact with her other arm pointing behind her.

Drake was mildly impressed with the move, it did not make him waver even a bit though, and he simply smirked and held his sword with both hands diagonally downward from right to left and watched her for her next move. He did not need to wait for long.

Lenalee put all her strength into her legs and gave a massive push which caused a major dent and several cracks along the concrete wall, she shot like a bullet towards Drake, midway she spun around so that her legs faced Drake directly and readied herself for an incredible impact with all her might.

It never came; Drake reacted to her movements just as quickly as she performed them.

'_Big mistake.' _He smiled to himself as she shot right at him, he sheathed his sword along his back, the fibers of his coat holding it firmly in place, in that time Lenalee had was only about fifty odd meters from him, he ran forward just a few steps, and pulled his arms in close to his chest before making an incredibly 360 degree twist-flip right over the female exorcist as she shot below him.

As he twisted forward and jumped he could see Lenalee pass under him, and began summoning in his long barreled gun in his left hand, as he twisted onto his back he stretched out his left arm and aimed it at the fast moving target to his side, he fired a series of three quick, low-powered, successive shots at the speeding exorcist before completing the twist, landing on his feet and loosing off another three quick shots.

Lenalee was stunned by the rapidity of Drake's movements and was caught between a rock and a hard place, due to her incredible speed she could not simply veer off in another direction to dodge; if she slowed down to do that she would get caught by the balls of energy hurtling towards her, if she tried to outrun them she would smash herself into the wall.

She forced herself to take the risk of slowing down; unfortunately the six shots fired were travelling too fast for her to change direction, so she could only watch in horror as they approached her…

But they failed to impact her; the whole lot exploded barely a meter away from where she stood.

Drake was not surprised at what happened, as he had fired of the second set of shots a white blur had come out of the corner of his eye and stood right between him and his target. He smiled and shook his head as Allen unsheathed the sword of exorcism from his left arm and blocked all six shots from hitting Lenalee.

'That's not nice Drake, she could've been seriously hurt.' Allen said with a slightly angry tone.

'And is that such a bad thing?' Drake quizzed him in return.

'I know you two are sparring, but that doesn't mean you can simply use all your means available to win, sparring means that you two are _training_ together…' He trailed of for a moment, Drake simply rolled his eyes.

'That's why-' He attempted to continue but was cutoff when he had to raise his sword to block another shot from Drake, not being completely prepared he was knocked down.

'Save the _lecture_ for when we win the war _Scarface_, now pick yourself up, and let's go all out.' Drake said as he spun his gun on around his claws a few times and then sheathed it diagonally left to right behind his left should so that it formed a sort of slanted cross with his sword sheathed diagonally from right to left behind his right shoulder.

'What?' Allen remarked as Lenalee helped him to his feet and whispered her thanks to him, he smiled back in response.

'You heard me.' Drake said as he crossed his arms over his chest with his palms open, two similar purple outlines of two curved, single edged swords appeared and materialized with their blades pointed downwards after the outline finished connecting together. Both were about half a meter long.

Drake grabbed both backhanded, swung his arms to his sides and faced both opponents.

'Game on.' He sneered.

Both exorcists returned the favor, and charged straight at him.

Allen lunged straight at Drake, who caught Allen's stab with his left sword, redirected it to the side while he used Allen's forward motion to lift the exorcist and hurl him while twisting his own body to use as much strength as possible, then he spun around and blocked Lenalee's own blow with his right sword, when Lenalee lifted her other leg he blocked that too, then he spun again with incredible force to turn the girl upside down so that her back faced him and delivered a powerful kick that sent her straight at the wall, she was saved by rapidly decelerating herself with her innocence although she still felt herself hit the wall with a slightly painful amount of force.

Meanwhile, Allen was able to use his sword to redirect his direction of motion by jamming it into the ground and using it to flip forward and onto his feet.

'_Not bad,' _Drake thought to himself, _'not bad at all.'_

The two exorcists staggered to their feet, surprised by the rapidity of Drake's counter to their assault.

'Come on you two…you'd be dead by now if I was less merciful then I am now.' Drake remarked as he twirled his blades several times.

Allen gripped his sword tightly and gave a knowing glance across the room to Lenalee, she nodded in return.

Then both charged Drake from opposite sides.

Drake smiled, _'That's more like it.'_

He jumped into the air just as both exorcists did the same, all three combatants met in midair with Drake in the middle, and he blocked both attacks with his arms crossed over his chest holding his blades.

He then grinned as both exorcists hemmed him in from both sides, and then he suddenly pushed them both apart from him with an incredible show of force, and then he spun several times, the blades of the two swords detached from their handles while remaining attached via a thin white thread, this allowed him to deliver several rapid and light slashes to both exorcists while spinning in midair rapidly.

Drake landed easily on his feet while the blades automatically reattached themselves, both Allen and Lenalee did not have such soft landings, but they were able to remain on their feet.

'_That was close.' _Allen thought to himself, he had barely blocked the series of strikes; he knew Drake would have to be incredibly skilled and strong, he had never expected Drake to be this skilled.

Even Lenalee was surprised just before they could decide their next move though; a voice was heard over the intercom.

'Drake and Lenalee please report to my office for a mission briefing.' Komui's voice sounded.

All three were quite surprised to hear this; Drake shrugged and remarked, 'We'll continue another time.' And disappeared out of the Training room swiftly.

Lenalee took a moment to power down and sit down on the floor to catch her breath, 'that was…_intense_.' She remarked.

She looked up and beamed a smile at Allen, 'Thanks for helping me Allen.'

Allen awkwardly smiled back, 'no problem Lenalee, I guess you should be going now.'

'Yeah.' Lenalee said as Allen helped her up and she walked to her elder brother's office.

**A little shorter than some of my other chapters, but no matter, a fairly long fight scene that lasts for pretty much to entire mid-section of the chapter.**

**I had a bit of trouble with the thread blades (that's what I call 'em), couldn't decide at first whether they should have the appearance of ordinary katana or short single edged daggers, so I finally decided to make them short curved single edged blades.**

**So how was the chapter?**


	21. Chapter 20: Runaway Train

**I apologize if you find a few inconsistencies, I wrote this chapter in two parts and then combined the two since I just wanted to put down whatever idea I had at the moment.**

**I also apologize for posting the same chapter twice; I was tired and not thinking too well about what I was clicking.**

'_On the list of things I should never ever try again, this one ranks fairly high…'_ Drake thought to himself silently as he ran as fast as he could across the roof of the train carriage towards the rear, the rest of the train had already been disconnected and the passengers had been piled into the last carriage by their finder escort Jonathan while the female exorcist Lenalee would push the carriage from the front to help Drake in slowing it down and eventually stopping it.

'_Good people they are, if only flawed by the girl's _incessant _whining.' _He continued in his head as he hopped down from the roof and onto the platform at the back of the carriage.

'_How the hell do I always find myself in these kinds of situations?' _He wondered as he braced himself for his next action.

_Several hours ago…_

'Drake and Lenalee please report to my office for a mission briefing.' Komui's voice sounded over the intercom.

At that moment, Drake had been engaged in a rather vicious sparring fight with Lenalee and Allen; he had just knocked both down for the second time when Komui interrupted their fight with the announcement.

All three had been quite surprised to hear this; Drake shrugged and remarked, 'We'll continue another time.' And disappeared out of the Training room swiftly.

Minutes later, both were in Komui's _hideously _messy office sitting down on the couch in front of his desk.

'I've called the two of you here today because we've received reports of the presence of Akuma by our finder detachment up in Scotland.' Komui said.

'And?' Drake asked, sensing there was more.

'And I want the both of you to investigate it, hopefully you'll find an innocence shard, if not at least you'll have solved a problem somewhere, you'll be accompanied by one of the newer finders, his name is Jonathan, he'll be down by the docks getting the boat ready, show him the ropes will you?' Komui said.

'Fine by me.' Drake shrugged and got up to leave.

'Oh! By the way, you leave in two days' time, something happened with the train that needs to be sorted out.' Komui shouted after him as he left.

'Yeah sure.' Drake simply waved to him as he walked away with his back turned.

_A little while later…_

Lenalee was just delivering another batch of coffee to the science division when she bumped into Drake; Lenalee noticed he was carrying a single strap sling bag with him.

'Drake! Um…are you going somewhere?' She asked, Drake gave her an incredulous look.

'I'm just going to the bar in town…where do you _think_ I'm going dammit?!' Drake nearly shouted at her.

'But…but the train's not ready yet…' She stammered, Drake lifted an eyebrow at her before he shrugged and walked away.

'Hey where are you going?' Lenalee called after him.

'You know that "train problems" have never stopped akuma before right?' He said after turning to face her.

'But…I...we…' Lenalee stammered out.

'You know what? Never mind,' He said as he turned back and continued walking away, 'if you wanna give the other side some extra time and a head start that's perfectly fine with me!'

'Oh…er…wait…wait for me! I just have to-' she was cut off by him.

'You have five minutes starting from when I get to the docks.' He said as he rounded a corner and disappeared, leaving Lenalee standing there with her tray of coffee cups.

'Oh no…I have to hurry!' She panicked.

It was the first time the science division had ever seen Lenalee walking so quickly into their offices, quickly putting down her tray on a desk where she usually waited for everyone to take their mugs, quickly explaining where they could get more coffee before dashing out at breakneck speed.

Lenalee panted as she threw together all of her travel items and ran as quickly as she could to the docks.

Only to find Drake missing.

'_Oh no, I'm too late.' _Lenalee kicked herself for not being faster, she walked up to one of the finders manning the docks and asked him, 'excuse me, did a tall man wearing a long-coat with red eyes pass through here?'

'No miss, I've been here for the pass few hours without seeing anyone.' He answered.

'…ok thank you.' She meekly replied.

'_Where could he be now? I guess I'll wait here for a while.' _She thought miserably.

_A whole hour later…_

Drake was mildly surprised when he met a very angry and infuriated Lenalee at the docks; her face was red with anger.

'Where have you been?!' The normally mild-mannered female exorcist yelled at the tall, dark male.

Drake glanced at his watch, 'how long have you been waiting?' He asked.

'A whole hour!'

'Not bad…'

'Excuse me?!'

'Most people can't come up with all their travel necessities in a whole day.'

'…I travel light.'

'Maybe, are you sure you have all you need?'

'...Yes.'

'Really?'

'_Yes.'_

'You don't wanna check?'

'No! You made me rush so badly! And you think I have time to check?'

'Well since we're standing here…'

'What?'

'We have time now actually, so why don't you check?'

'Weren't we rushing for time?'

'Yes…we…_were_.'

'And now?'

'Well how the hell was I supposed to know that Black Order logistics and scheduling was would be _so screwed up_ that the boat isn't ready 24/7?!'

'Er…'

Drake then went over to the finder and asked him about the boat, and found out that it was ready.

'Well since it's apparently as ready as it can be…did you check?'

'I said you were-'

'You had a _whole hour_.'

'…'

'Well?'

'…erm…'

'You could have spent the whole hour checking and re-checking and let me guess, you didn't.'

'No…'

'…well?!'

'Huh?'

'Are you going to start tomorrow or the day after?!'

'Er…I'll…I'll check now…'

'Better late than never...'

Eventually, Lenalee had to run back to get a few things she missed, causing several more minutes delay.

'Next time…' Drake said to her while they were on the boat.

'Yes?'

'Or rather, when we get back, make sure from now on that you always have a bag that's ready with all your necessary thing inside, that way when a call comes you can simply pick it up and go.'

'…Ok…thanks for the advice.'

'No problem.'

_Sometime later…_

Drake, Lenalee and a finder named Jonathan were seated in their cabin on a train that ran along the coast up into Scotland; it was not exactly the first class stuff that the Black Order usually got when they got the company to prepare a special carriage for the exorcists.

Lenalee yawned and leaned back, long train rides were always a bore to her, so she decided to take a nap so that time would fly by a little faster. Meanwhile, Drake read his copy of the King James edition of the Bible and Jonathan merely observed the scenery.

Unbeknownst to the trio, there was a group of level two Akuma on board planning to sabotage the train, hoping that it would incur a massive loss of life when it derailed at the precise spot that they hoped it would.

But before that could happen, they had to ensure that _every_ measure that could potentially stop the train did stop it.

The Akuma had already infiltrated and were now in the cabin of the locomotive. And now they set their plan in motion.

'It's already prepared isn't it?' One cackled.

'Yes! At the next stop we'll request a full load of both water and coal, have you activated the emergency brakes already?' Another asked a third, the third Akuma gave a thumb up.

'Indeed, I can instantly activate all the emergency brakes.' The third replied.

'Good good! Now let's get this thing going!' The first laughed madly.

'Now let's give the passengers a little taste of what's coming!' The second grinned evilly.

They began to shovel coal quickly into the firebox, although not so quickly that they would run out.

Elsewhere in the cabin where Drake, Lenalee and Jonathan were residing in, Jonathan had now fallen asleep as well, Drake was the only one still awake and was running through the revelations section of the Bible when the train began to rock from side to side.

'_Hmm, the train's moving faster than usual, are we late?' _He wondered, but a quick check of his watch told him otherwise, _'Hmm, guess we're going to be a little early, so much the better'_

And so the ride continued, Drake was lost in reading the bible when suddenly; a massive shudder ran through the train and jolted him out of his concentration, it nearly sent Lenalee tumbling to the floor too, Drake caught her in time and set her back in her seat, waking her and Jonathan up.

'What is it? What happened?' Lenalee asked as she rubbed her eyes.

'Don't worry, we're just at the next stop and the train driver got a little excitable, go back to sleep.' Drake remarked.

On hearing this, Lenalee stretched her stiff limbs and tried to go back to sleep, as did Jonathan, Drake simply went back to reading.

After a while, the train began moving again, although this time the acceleration was _very_ slow.

'_Either they want to make up for what happened just now, or he started with the brakes on.'_ Drake thought quietly, pretty soon though, the train was back up to normal running speed, and he forgot about that.

Eventually though, he got bored reading revelations, and decided to see if he could go out and get some fresh air. In the meantime, he decided to scan the entire train and the surrounding area for Akuma, just to be sure.

He went out and stood on the platform outside the carriage, his eyes glowed pinkish and he scanned the train, just as he made out the three level twos in the cabin, he heard the door in the carriage across from his own open, and a sullen young man with little expression on his face stepped out.

Drake's unigue vision instantly identified him as a level one, and before the Akuma could do anything, Drake jumped the gap between both carriages, and bisected the Akuma cleanly with Annihilator.

The explosion that resulted caused a significant enough of a jolt that Lenalee and Jonathan woke up again.

'What's happened? Are we there yet?' She asked sleepily, just then, Drake burst into the cabin.

'Get up and rub the sleep out of your eyes! There's Akuma on the train!' Drake announced.

Lenalee was alert immediately, 'where?' She asked.

'Mainly at the back, but I saw a few in front, can you clear all those at the back? Go outside and make yourself a target, which should entice them.' Drake remarked, as he said it, he punched clean through the window of the cabin and then threw the whole frame out, making a very large hole.

'Go!' He said.

'You got it!' Lenalee replied firmly, 'innocence activate!' She said and sped out of the carriage.

'And you just stay here and out of trouble.' Drake said to Jonathan as he ran out of the cabin and to the front of the train.

'Drake ran through the carriage, out of it and into the next one with his glowing all the time, one Akuma tried to intercept him, without missing a beat, Drake slammed him with his left claw through the roof the train and fired a single low powered shot that exploded the Akuma before the train moved too far away.

He continued hacking and slashing his way through any Akuma that he came across until he came up against a middle-aged man with a wavy moustache.

'Excuse me! What's going on here?' He demanded.

'Crap is happening, there are bad people on the train, now get into your cabin and stay there until I say it is safe to come out.' Drake said quickly.

'I am the train conductor, this is my train!' He said firmly.

Drake paused for a moment; it was rare for him to find humans that were so…_unpersuasive._

'I need to know if there is anything wrong with the train at the moment.' Drake responded, meanwhile, several people were peeking out of their cabins to see what the commotion was all about.

'The train is going too fast! At this speed, it will derail at any sharp turn!'

'Can't we just use the emergency brakes to slow down?'

'No, I just found out that someone turned them on already! If the emergency brakes are on for too long at such a high speed, they fail.'

'Ok…so what happens when the emergency brakes fail?'

'They explode.'

'Excuse me?' Drake said incredulously while blinking rapidly, 'did you just say _explode?'_

Right on cue, there was a loud "BANG" and a tremendous jolt as several broken, circular disks exploded from the wooden floor of the carriage and planted themselves into the ceiling, one of them missing Drake by inches, he didn't flinch as several people cried out in fear. Immediately, he felt the train begin to accelerate as the ride got bumpier and bumpier.

'Anyone hurt?!' Drake called out, a quick check showed that miraculously, no one was.

Drake quickly turned back to the man, 'what about the regular brakes?' He quickly asked.

'They're up front in the cabin, but they won't stop a train at this speed, they'll probably fail too.' The man said.

'Never mind that, at least we can slow this thing down some.' Drake said as he turned to Jonathan, 'Jon, get everyone into this last carriage, I don't care how but we can't have more than one carriage with people ok?' Drake ordered.

'Yes sir, alright people let's get moving, go to the rear.' Jonathan said firmly and as loudly as he could without shouting.

With that said, Drake pushed his way through the crowd to the front of the train, it was a struggle fighting against a literal wave of people pushing and shoving their way into the last carriage. Eventually though, he made it all the way to the steam engine up front.

On reaching the locomotive, Drake quickly jumped over the gap and threw open the door to the cabin. He was mildly surprised by what he saw.

Three men, all Akuma, they turned to look at him, one said, 'it's him! The half-ling!'

Before the others could respond and transform into their Akuma forms, Drake bisected all three with a single slash from his long blade.

'Well now…_that sucks.'_ Drake exclaimed grimly as he stared at the completely thrashed and destroyed engine room, every lever was broken. He quickly threw open the door to the firebox and was greeted with an intense rush of hot air and soot, he was shocked to see the firebox full of coal and was a literal inferno.

He checked the water level, remembering that they had only left the station minutes ago, and his expectations were met when he saw that it was still quite high.

Giving a quick look around the compartment, he noticed a map pasted to one side of the cabin, as he looked carefully at it, he noticed that the route of the train was marked out in red, but he noticed that the line marking it deviated from the train's original route and ended at an area that went over the sea.

'_Holy crap. They're going to-' _His thoughts were interrupted when there was an incredible shudder swept through the cabin and he fell backwards although he caught hold one side to steady himself.

Along the tracks, an Akuma cackled to himself as he watched the train zip by, having just barely adjusted the tracks in time to their "correct" setting.

'Enjoy the time you have left stupid exorcists!' He laughed madly, and failed to see Lenalee approach him from behind.

With a cry, Lenalee kicked him with her "dark boots" as hard as he could, and the Akuma exploded without knowing what hit him.

She quickly flew to the cabin of the train, having heard from the other passengers that Drake was headed there.

'Drake!' Lenalee shouted over the sound of the roaring locomotive as she landed carefully at the back of the locomotive behind Drake, Drake turned to look at her.

'I've gotten rid of the rest of the Akuma, what's happening now?' She shouted.

'They filled the damn thing to the brim with coal!' Drake shouted back.

'Can't we stop it?' She asked.

'No dice! They've destroyed the brake controls, I don't know of any other way to activate them!' Drake said.

'Aren't there emergency brakes in the passenger compartments that we can use?' Lenalee remarked.

Drake was about to yell at her when he remembered that Lenalee had not been present when the emergency brakes failed.

'Tried that already! The Akuma disabled it while you were out fighting!'

'Ok…what if we just let it run out on its own?' Lenalee asked.

'No can do! We just left the station where it took on more water remember? It's still quite full! Anyway, at this speed, the train will derail on any sharp turn!' Drake answered before he gestured to the map.

'And look at this, look at the circle! That part of the track runs over the sea!' Drake said, turning to the girl to let her draw her own conclusions.

'Oh no, they're going to blow the track!' Lenalee responded.

'Looks that way.' Drake answered affirmatively.

'Well what do we do?' Lenalee asked in a panicky voice.

'I've already told the finder to get everyone into the last compartment; I'm going to detach the engine and every compartment without people! Now let's go!' Drake ushered her out of the cabin and into the carriage behind it, once they were off he unsheathed his sword and sliced off the connection. The engine began moving away slowly as the carriage was still moving quite fast.

He and Lenalee then raced to the back of the carriage, taking care to check and ensure that it was completely clear before moving on to the next carriage, they performed this same process for all the carriages until they came to the final one which all the passengers had been crowded into. Jonathan was waiting for them at the platform in front.

'How's everyone?' Drake asked after he sliced off the last connection.

'Quite frightened and cramped sir.' Jonathan answered.

'Well at least no one's hurt.' Drake breathed a sigh of relief, 'do you have a map of this area?'

The finder shook his head, 'no sir, only of the area we were supposed to go to.' He answered.

'Damn.' Drake swore, 'I guess we just have to ride this out then…Lenalee go forward to check ahead of us, tell me when you see the bridge.' Drake ordered.

'Alright.' Lenalee answered before taking off and shooting ahead.

'Well at least I didn't have to perform another crazy stunt…' Drake trailed off quietly, 'keep watch out here.' He said to Jonathan as he climbed up and onto the roof.

'Yes sir.' Jonathan said and turned away.

Drake slowly walked across the roof as the rushing blasted against his thin body, when he got to the middle; he opened the hatch and peered down into the carriage.

'Are all of you alright?' He asked, _'wow it is cramped as hell.'_ He thought, noticing that some were standing on the seats in the cabins and that everyone was packed like sardines.

'Yeah.', 'we're alright.', 'fine' was what he got from the passengers.

'Great, just ah…' He turned his head to face the front and noticed Lenalee approaching from a distance, '…a couple more minutes, and we'll have the train stopped.' He said before the closing the hatch.

He hurried to the front where Lenalee landed.

'Drake! The bridge is not too far from here! I don't think we're going to make it!' Lenalee said, still quite panicked.

'Crap.' Drake swore again as he considered his options, 'how far?'

'A kilometer, maybe less.' Lenalee answered.

'Dammit!' Drake swore loudly, and then his eyes lit up with an idea, 'I got an idea!' He said as he began climbing up the roof for the second time.

'Where're you going, what're you going to do?' Lenalee asked.

'I'm going to the rear, I'm going to try and stop the train manually.' He answered.

'But how? You can't possibly stop a train!' Lenalee responded.

Now standing on top of the train, Drake turned and faced her, 'watch me.' he said.

'Drake no! It's too dangerous you can't stop a train! How do you propose to do it anyway?' She quickly flew up and tried to stop him.

'Well why don't you make it less dangerous for me by pushing from this end of the train?' Drake said in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

'I'll just jam my blades into the wheels and I'll pull back, trust me ok? I've done worst things.' Drake pushed her aside and ran straight to the back.

'_On the list of things I should never ever try again, this one ranks fairly high…'_ Drake thought to himself silently as he ran as fast as he could across the roof of the train carriage towards the rear, the rest of the train had already been disconnected and the passengers had been piled into the last carriage by their finder escort Jonathan while the female exorcist Lenalee would push the carriage from the front to help Drake in slowing it down and eventually stopping it.

'_Good people they are, if only flawed by the girl's _incessant _whining.' _He continued in his head as he hopped down from the roof and onto the platform at the back of the carriage.

'_How the hell do I always find myself in these kinds of situations?' _He wondered as he braced himself for his next action.

Drake unsheathed both of his thread blades form two scabbards hanging from his belt, he twirled them both rapidly, the blade detaching and spinning rapidly to build up momentum, and he then sucked a lungful of air…

And then he hurled both blades down and in between the wheels of the carriage while jumping clear of the train.

Drake felt a massive force yank him backwards as he landed and jammed both his feet into the ground, he bent his knees and crossed his arms while laying the threads over his shoulders to use as much strength as possible, he could hear the loud, shrill screeching of the wheels and felt the wooden planks snap under his feet as he was pulled along with the train.

Drake gasped and heaved as he pulled with all his might, on the other side, Lenalee pushed as hard as she could even though she doubted that she was doing anything at all to help, Suddenly, she heard a loud explosion and turned to see what it was, she was shocked to see the fast approaching rail bridge disappear in a conflagration of fire and smoke, taking the steam engine and all of the other carriages with it as it crossed the destroyed bridge.

At the back, Drake heard the explosion, spurring him to pull even harder even as he felt all of his muscles and bones scream in protest at the abuse he was throwing on them, although at the same time pure adrenaline pumped through his veins, lessening the pain somewhat.

On the other end, Lenalee could only watch in horror as the broken bridge drew closer and closer the carriage that they were trying so hard to stop.

Drake seemed to sense what was happening even though he could not see it; he threw everything he had into one last massive pull…

And stopped the Train about a meter from the bridge.

Drake fell down and gasped for air, as the adrenaline seeped away, his muscles and bones began screaming at him again and the pain came in waves, he gasped and tried to get up, even as his tired and strained muscles did not want to.

'Drake! Are you alright?!' Lenalee quickly flew beside him; Drake put both of his hands on his face.

'_Holy crap woman_! I just single-handedly stopped _a goddamn train_! How the hell do you think I'm doing?!' Drake shouted at the top of his voice, before removing his hands from his hands and closing his eyes.

Before Lenalee could reply he continued, 'look I just…_need to rest_ ok?' He said in exasperation.

'…ok' was all Lenalee could say after Drake's rant, she deactivated her innocence and sat down beside him while hugging her legs together.

After a while, Jonathan approached them, Drake tilted his head upwards to look at him.

'How's everyone?' He inquired.

'A little shaken and a bit bruised, but it seems that they're mostly alright.' The finder answered.

'Ok…hmm,' Drake leaned his head back and rubbed his temples for a bit before he stood up and said, 'alright enough sleeping on the job, time to go.' He said as he offered his right hand to Lenalee, who took it with thanks.

Drake dusted himself off and looked at the crowd of people who were gathering outside the train.

'Has there been any call for rescue?' Drake quizzed Jonathan.

'I've sent a call out to headquarters, but we're not in a completely barren, isolated area, there should be a nearby village where we can send a telegraph or something for help.' He replied.

'Fair enough, just what I had in mind.' Drake nodded in approval.

'What about the passengers though?' Lenalee asked.

'They're British, I'm sure they can find something to do while waiting.' Drake remarked, looking at the crowd.

'I'm not sure that's-' Lenalee started but was interrupted by Drake.

'And we have a mission to complete, so let's quit wasting time and go.' Drake said firmly as he walked off.

'You can't just leave them here! There could be other Akuma around!' she protested.

'Watch me.' Drake replied without even looking back.

Lenalee looked at him, then turned to the group of people spreading out around the field around the train track, when she turned back to Drake she noticed that he had already covered some distance and did not appear to be turning back anytime soon.

'What do you want to do miss exorcist?' Jonathan asked meekly.

'I think, he'll be fine on his own, we'll stay with the passengers.' Lenalee said, although she was still unsure.

The rest of the day passed without incident for Lenalee, she interacted with and got to know a few of the passengers until the police arrived and investigated, although that was _much_ later and the day was already coming to an end, whereupon she decided not to delay any further and after asking for directions, headed with Jonathan to the nearest station.

They were just in time to catch one of the last few trains heading out for the day, strangely enough, several stops later they encountered Drake, who had disembarked from his train to wait for them, after that the trio continued on their journey north.

In the end though, there was no innocence to be found, although Lenalee and Drake cleared up a minor group of Akumas, Drake theorized that they were only bait and that the train wreck was an attempt to kill of a few exorcists, although nothing came of that.

_On the return trip…_

Lenalee had thought about why Drake had willingly left the passengers behind even though they were vulnerable to another attack by the Akuma, unable to come up with anything, she finally sucked up enough courage to ask him.

'Hey…Drake?'

'What?' Drake replied in bored tones without looking up from his bible.

'Why did you leave them behind?' She asked.

'Why did I leave _who_ behind?'

'The passengers on that train.'

Drake paused on hearing that, he knew exactly why he left them behind, 'simple, I'm not a savior, I'm not the knight in shining armor or the angel who comes down from heaven and saves everyone…' He let that sink in for a moment before continuing

'I'm a destroyer, a _killer, _I don't save, I _destroy_. I'm not the white knight, I'm the black knight, I'm in this not because I want to save the world, I just don't like having that fat bastard around.' He finished.

'Is that a reasonable enough explanation for you?' He returned to his bible.

The rest of the return trip continued in silence.

**The longest chapter ever, nearly 5000 words in all, I hope you didn't find it too draggy; I just ended up piling on the words nonstop.**

**So how was it?**


	22. Chapter 21: Roof of the World

**Twice in a row now, this chapter stands at MORE than 5000 words.**

**Despite this though, this is for you XxBunnyHugerxX, thank you for your review on my writing style, but I'm sorry to say that I don't enjoy writing such long chapters, I prefer to keep mine as short as I can possibly manage, long chapters tend to be draggy for me.**

'How much further do we have to go?' Allen's voice whined out as he continued pushing his way through the deep snow.

'Maybe if you stopped complaining beansprout and started walking faster we could be there by now!' Kanda yelled at him.

'It's Allen stupid Kanda! And I'm freezing out here!' Allen yelled back.

Drake meanwhile, kept his head down and remained silent, he had chosen to remain at the back of the group with Allen in front and Kanda in the middle, they were on another mission, this time to the roof of the world itself: the Himalayan Mountain range.

Drake was clothed in a thicker, fur-lined version of his long-coat with a hood; he wore a pair of skiing goggles over his eyes along with a mask that covered his mouth and nose, a black scarf wrapped around his neck and thick gloves completed his outfit, the other two were similarly dressed.

At the moment though, the trio were stuck somewhere on the snowy slopes in the middle of nowhere.

'_At least it's sunny.'_ Drake noted to himself as he took a moment to glance at the bright sun bearing down on them.

Drake had been to the summit of Everest numerous times, mostly by himself with some form of…unorthodox…_help._ Right now though, he was becoming quite irritated with the non-stop, back-and-forth arguing from both Kanda and Allen, and they had been going at it since they left the Asian Branch, leaving him with not a single moment of peace since.

'Just shut up or I'll cut you to pieces whiny beansprout.' Kanda growled.

'It'll be easier to cut your long hair off.' Allen returned with a sneer.

'Why you-!' Kanda snarled angrily and tackled Allen into the snow.

Drake rolled his eyes silently, sighed and walked up to the two struggling figures, before butting in, 'perhaps if the both of you stopped shouting, fighting and screaming at each other so much, we could actually be in paradise by now?' He remarked.

Both looked up at him from their position, Kanda growled, got up and patted the snow off of him while Allen struggled up.

'Drake…I'm freezing! I'm hungry! And I'm tired! Where is this paradise anyway?!' Allen screamed in frustration.

'Like I said before, if you stopped whining so much and started moving a bit more, maybe we could find shelter before we all die a frozen, starving and sleepy death somewhere out here where they will never find our bodies for the next hundred or so years.' Drake replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

'…Huh?' Allen said, not having understood Drake's monologue.

'And by the way, I _did_ volunteer to come and look for the innocence on my own while the two of you held down the fort.'

'It's just because the beansprout is too fragile to tolerant this kind of thing.' Kanda scoffed.

'It's Allen stupid Kanda!' Allen shouted at him and both went at it again.

Drake let his shoulders sag and sighed in resignation once again, _'why the hell do I always end up like this? Stuck in the middle of nowhere, with two whining children who cannot seem to stop bickering for five seconds...damn this all to hell...' _He swore quietly to himself.

'…_Oh yeah…'_ Drake thought as he started recalling the events leading up to his current situation.

_Several days ago…_

'Be careful Kanda, don't take him lightly, he's _very_ good.' Allen warned Kanda.

'Che, I don't need your advice beansprout.' Kanda replied.

'It's Allen idiot Kanda.' Both exorcists faced their opponent; Kanda wielded an activated Mugen while Allen had his sword of exorcism. They faced Drake wielding his Annihilator, its long black and red blade rested in Drake's right hand easily.

Instead of the training room, the three swordsmen were actually standing outside in a relatively open field; it had been Drake's suggestion since the potential for collateral was incredibly high if the three started really going at it.

'Remember, no mercy the both of you.' Drake twirled his sword dangerously.

'Noted.' Kanda smirked, and both exorcists charged Drake simultaneously.

Allen was slightly faster and lunged at Drake, Drake swung his sword left to right, catching Allen's attack and deflecting him behind Drake. He continued by using the spinning momentum to parry Kanda's lunge, when Kanda pushed through and jumped for a downward slash, Drake held his sword horizontally at eye level and blocked again, he bent his knees for greater strength pushed Kanda off him with little effort.

Drake then spun on instinct and blocked a horizontal slash from Allen with his own sword positioned vertically, allowing him to push Allen back. Both exorcists were now positioned on either side, they both attacked again and again, with Drake expertly countering and parrying every blow with his long sword even though they were on either side of him, he always countered by pushing his opponent back to destabilize them, enabling him to switch his attention constantly between the two.

Then both exorcists suddenly lunged simultaneously, Drake sidestepped by moving backwards and allowing the two exorcists' blades to lock together with his own blade held vertically downwards so that it formed a six-pointed figure.

He pushed the blade lock upwards, elbowed Kanda away and then he ran right at Allen and aimed another powerful slash. Knowing that he was not likely to be able to withstand such a blow, Allen held his sword vertically downwards to block and used it as leverage to backflip over Drake. Now both exorcists faced Drake from the same direction.

Kanda went first, lunging and locking blades with Drake, both then immediately pushed each other apart just as Allen landed right where they had been with a massive downward slash; Allen then raced forward and locked the sword of exorcism with Annihilator.

'Is that the best you can do? That's pathetic.' Drake remarked with a cold sneer as both swords crackled with energy.

Allen gritted his teeth, but before anyone could do anything else, several claps were heard.

'Hey! Brother wants to see the three of you for something!' Lenalee called to them from one end of the field.

Kanda was in the middle of activating his double illusion blades while Allen and Drake were still locked together; all three disengaged and sheathed their respective weapons. Kanda put Mugen back into its scabbard, Allen got his left arm back and deactivated while Drake put Annihilator along his back.

'We'll continue another time.' Drake said with an unearthly grin.

'…Didn't you say that last time?' Allen asked.

'Maybe…maybe not.' Drake replied as he walked back to the building.

_A little later…_

All three were seated in front of Komui on his couch; Drake was sitting in between Allen and Kanda. Komui noted that it looked for a moment like a podium of some sort, With Drake being champion, Kanda getting second and Allen getting third.

'So…have we been training well?' Komui asked.

Allen was about to speak when Drake went first, 'they're both useless.'

'Wha…?' Allen gaped.

'Why you…!' Kanda was about to draw his sword when Komui quickly interrupted the three before a fight could break out.

'_In any case, _I'm giving you guys a mission to the roof…_of the world_!' Komui exclaimed loudly, all three raised eyebrows at that, Komui quickly calmed down and explained further.

'It's to the Himalayan mountain range, the same one where you and Krory got trapped at one point, there have been rumours that a monastery there have some sort of legendary staff, said to be capable of growing according to its users' wishes, it was said to weigh more than 5 tons and was used by the dragon king to beat the sea floor, we need you to check it out.' He gestured to Allen.

Allen swallowed hard, remembering very clearly how their guide had turned out to be the Noah Lulubell, and how she had tricked the both of them and then caused an avalanche to fall on them.

His thoughts were interrupted when Drake started speaking, 'Ok…anything else?'

'No…and Drake? You'll be using Allen's gateway ability thing to move, so the only delay will be in getting him to cooperate.' Komui said with a small smile

'Right, aren't you missing something though.' Drake said.

'What?' Komui asked as he searched through his brain for anything he missed out.

'So…let me get this straight…you want to send two people untrained and unknowing of the dangers of high altitude up to the Himalayas?' Drake asked with incredulity.

'Ah…yes…about that…you will head for the Asian branch first where you'll be given a three day crash course before you proceed.' Komui answered.

Drake sighed, 'better than nothing…alright you two enough with the glares, let's get going already.' He said as he shouldered his sword and moved out of the room.

_Later that day…_

After a lot more squabbling and arguing than was necessary, Drake was finally able to get the two to get moving faster than they usually did, as well as giving them the same tip he gave to Lenalee when they had gone on their own mission.

Within bleached walls of Noah's Ark, they walked slowly towards a door clearly marked as the Asian branch.

'Here it is.' Allen remarked as he pushed open the door and stepped through it easily, Kanda swiftly followed suit.

Drake however, paused at the opening of the door and did not follow through immediately; he lifted his left claw and touched an invisible barrier that seemed to be preventing him from entering, he traced his claw along it, feeling the barrier fizzle and crackle at his touch, it was definitely a weak barrier, one he could push through easily with no difficulty, the sort of barrier for hiding, not for protection.

He knew there was some kind of guardian protecting the Asian branch, 'I guess it's time to see who it is.' He muttered, so saying he pushed through the barrier without difficulty and entered the Asian branch of the Black Order.

He joined the other two; Kanda was just standing of to the side while Allen was greeted warmly by the head of the Asian Branch, Bak Chan.

'And Bak, I wanted to introduce to you someone new.' Allen turned to Drake who walked down the steps swiftly and came face to face with Bak.

'Drake is it? I'm Bak Chan, head of the Asian Branch.' Bak held out his right hand, Drake hesitatingly held out his own and let Bak hold it and shake it without making much movement, even simply letting his hand drop after the shake.

'Komui told me quite a lot about you.' Bak said, trying to strike up a conversation.

Drake made the barest of nods, '_did he now_?' He watched Bak through narrowed crimson eyes.

'Yes indeed-' Bak started but was cut off by Drake.

'So when are we starting this crash course for the both of them?' Drake questioned while gesturing at Allen and Kanda, who were exchanging glares.

'Right now actually, and you…?' Bak asked Drake carefully.

'I know what hypothermia is, I know what the air is like at that altitude, and I know what the weather can be like.' Drake answered, before Bak could say anything else he continued.

'And before you question "how"…don't…ok? Just be glad I do.' Drake said quickly.

'…Right.' Bak noted, he felt chilled to the bone somehow by Drake's unearthly, silent crimson gaze, he had been told by Komui about it but it was agitating to see it for himself.

'Well…err…I'll just show you to your trainer and then be off on my way.' Bak said just as quickly.

As they walked through the halls of the Asian Branch, Bak was surprised when he found himself constantly rubbing his right hand; he felt some strange sensation on it, as if there was some kind of…_taint_ on it that needed to be washed away. After showing Kanda and Allen their instructors, and letting Drake of to freely roam around the Asian Branch, Bak found himself in the bathroom, trying to wash his hands for some reason, but the feeling refused to go away.

'Are you alright?' A female voice asked him, Bak knew instinctively who it was.

'I'm fine…just…' Bak finally gave up, turned off the tap and stared at this right hand.

'Is something wrong with your hand?' Fo asked.

'No, I just…how can I say…it feels…really…weird after I shook Drake's hand.' Bak answered.

'Hm.' Fo said simply and disappeared.

_Elsewhere…_

Drake leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, allowing himself some peace and rest.

'Sleeping on the job kid?' A gruff, raspy voice asked him.

Drake opened his eyes and was confronted with a large, armored humanoid with silvery plate armor all over, a helmet with a metallic crown on it and visible black drapes underneath; Drake closed his eyes again and rubbed them with his thumb and index finger.

'Oh god, what do you want now?' Drake sighed in resignation.

'What do _I_ want kid? No no no, what do _you_ want kid?' The figure replied.

'No no, I'm not in the mood for this.' Drake shook his head gently.

'Is anyone ever?' The figure said again with a smirk.

'This is all in my head; I know you're not real.' Drake said firmly.

'Oh yeah? Well you better get your shit straight sonny, cause if you don't, then I'm gonna be about the realest goddamn person you're ever gonna see again.' He jabbed his finger into Drake's chest, Drake blinked, and the figure was gone.

'Just my luck, and today seemed to be going so well…' He sighed; suddenly he felt another presence near him and instinctively gripped the handle of his sword lying across his back.

'I could smell your stink from a mile away…' A voice whispered, Drake turned left and right, wondering where it came from.

'Why don't you stop pretending, I know who you are.' The voice said slowly and grimly, Drake noticed that part of the wall to his left seemed to open up to reveal a bright light inside.

Drake grinned and let his hand fall by his side, 'Really? I assume you're the so-called guardian of this place.'

'I don't know what you're planning, or what you're trying to do, but these are _my _grounds, the lives of the people in this place are my concern, but yours however, is not.' Drake let out a mocking laugh at that, and then turned to grin at Fo, who had materialized her head from the wall.

'You say that as if that has ever stopped me before.' He sneered at the guardian.

Quick as wit, Fo had turned one of her hands into a blade and had it pointed right at Drake's chest where his heart would be, Drake on the other hand, reacted just a quickly, his sword barely touching the guardian's neck.

'If you truly know who I am…can you cut me faster than I can decapitate you?' Drake stared at her from the corner of his eye.

'…One of these days…one of these days your own judgment will come, and then we'll see who has the last laugh.' Fo hissed angrily as she withdrew her hand, Drake did likewise and sheathed his blade, he stopped leaning on the wall and turned to face the guardian with his arms folded.

'I've been waiting for that day a long time, it never seems to come.' Drake remarked.

'It will come eventually, it always does.' Fo replied.

'Maybe, and I didn't catch your name.' Drake tilted his head to look at the guardian.

'You know me only as Fo, nothing more.' Fo said as she disappeared into the wall and vanished.

'…Fo? What a cheap name.' Drake muttered silently to himself.

_A few days later…_

All three were on a train bound for the foot of the Himalayas; all carried a rather large rucksack with all their needed equipment and supplies to last them for the whole trip.

'_And hopefully, we don't get lost and are only found millions of years later, long after our flesh has given up the ghost.' _Drake thought as their train pulled into the station they were alighting at.

'_And then they'll be wondering, "Who were these people, why were they here, where did they come from", all that sort of crap.' _Drake let his mind wander for a bit as the three walked out of the station and into the wet, humid environment of Northern India.

He snapped out of his thoughts when Allen and Kanda began arguing for the umpteenth time again.

'I'm telling you Kanda! It's that way!' Allen pointed in a certain direction.

'No, it's the other way stupid beansprout!' Kanda grabbed the map and pointed it in another direction.

'I have a better idea.' Drake piped up, both turned to look at him.

'How about I proceed _on my own, _to go look and see if there are any innocence shards around up there while the two of you stick around the town and keep watch for Akuma.' Drake said, strongly emphasizing the "on my own" part.

'We can't get separated, we need to stick together.' Allen protested.

'Then how about the both of you quit arguing for ten seconds! We could stand here all day arguing until the Earl wins the war, and then you'd still be arguing about…god knows whatever it is you two argue about anyway!' Drake nearly shouted, and then he heaved out a loud sigh before stretching out his hand.

'Hand it over.'

'What?'

'You heard me, hand over the map or we'll be here past the end of time.'

'Ok…' Allen lifted his hand, and then Drake snatched it from him in any case, he stared at it for a couple of seconds before looking up and saying, 'Well it appears that it won't matter much as to whether or not either of you is right.'

'Why?' Allen asked

'The monastery we're looking for does not appear to be in this map, and rightfully so.' Drake remarked as he folded the map and tucked it into his coat pocket.

'Rightfully so?' Allen questioned.

'Allen, the Himalayas is a very, _very_ unforgiving place, not a single person has ever managed to fully explore and chart the area.' Drake paused for a moment.

'And the locals aren't the most welcoming people either, sure if you have some serious problem they'll take care of you…probably…but the entire place is very isolated, the terrain is hard to traverse, the weather is unpredictable, it could be sunny one minute and blowing a blizzard the next…' Drake trailed off.

'How do you know so much?' Allen asked.

Before Drake could say anything, Kanda cut in, 'does it matter? We're wasting time talking here, can we just go already?'

Drake stared at him, 'do you even know where we have to go?'

'…no, but standing around talking about it isn't going to help either right?'

'…good point.'

_A few more days later…_

'How much further do we have to go?' Allen's voice whined out as he continued pushing his way through the deep snow.

'Maybe if you stopped complaining beansprout and started walking faster we could be there by now!' Kanda yelled at him.

'It's Allen stupid Kanda! And I'm freezing out here!' Allen yelled back.

At the moment, the trio were stuck somewhere on the snowy slopes in the middle of nowhere.

'_At least it's sunny.'_ Drake noted to himself as he took a moment to glance at the bright sun bearing down on them.

Drake had been to the summit of Everest numerous times, mostly by himself with some form of…unorthodox…_help._ Right now though, he was losing his patience with the non-stop, back-and-forth arguing from both Kanda and Allen.

'Just shut up or I'll cut you to pieces whiny beansprout.' Kanda growled.

'It'll be easier to cut your long hair off.' Allen returned with a sneer.

'Why you-!' Kanda snarled angrily and tackled Allen into the snow.

Drake rolled his eyes silently, sighed and walked up to the two struggling figures, before butting in, 'perhaps if the both of you stopped shouting, fighting and screaming at each other so much, we could actually be in paradise by now?' He remarked.

Both looked up at him from their position, Kanda growled, got up and patted the snow off of him while Allen struggled up.

'Drake…I'm freezing! I'm hungry! And I'm tired! Where is this paradise anyway?!' Allen screamed in frustration.

'Like I said before, if you stopped whining so much and started moving a bit more, maybe we could find shelter before we all die a frozen, starving and sleepy death somewhere out here where they will never find our bodies for the next hundred or so years.' Drake replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

'…Huh?' Allen said, not having understood Drake's monologue.

'And by the way, I _did_ volunteer to come and look for the innocence on my own while the two of you held down the fort.'

'It's just because the beansprout is too fragile to tolerant this kind of thing.' Kanda scoffed.

'It's Allen stupid Kanda!' Allen shouted at him and both went at it again.

Drake let his shoulders sag and sighed in resignation once again, _'why the hell do I always end up like this? Stuck in the middle of nowhere, with two whining children who cannot seem to stop bickering for five seconds...damn this all to hell...' _He swore quietly to himself.

'…_Oh yeah…'_ Drake thought as he started recalling the events leading up to his current situation. He let his mind wander for a moment while the two exorcists thrashed it out in the snow.

Eventually though, both exorcists got up from their rolling around in the snow, now both were quite bruised and battered from their encounter, Drake meanwhile, had found a place to sit on a rocky outcrop some distance away, both exorcists staggered and shambled towards him, they arrived to find Drake looking quite dead and listless, he simply stared straight ahead, Kanda walked up to him and snapped his fingers in front of him.

Drake blinked and turned to stare at him and Allen, 'are you both done tussling with each other?' He said with an insufferable smirk on his face.

Allen and Kanda simply panted and looked at him.

'And now we'll have wasted more time and energy thanks to your stupid shenanigans, there's a storm on the horizon by the way.' He gestured behind Allen and Kanda as he got off his seat.

Both Allen and Kanda turned and true enough, some very angry dark clouds could be seen in the distance.

'Well if we're lucky,' Drake continued, 'it'll veer off and we'll be saved, if we're not…well…now is the time to start believing in god, now come on you two.'

_Several minutes later…_

'_Well, this isn't so bad…' _Drake thought as he stumbled his way through a fairly "light" blizzard, he held both exorcists on his shoulders as trudged through the blowing wind and snow.

'So tired…' Allen muttered as he struggled to keep awake.

'Hey don't fall asleep now; you're still useful to me.' Drake shook him to keep him awake.

'Yeah…it'd…be embarrassing…if the beansprout…died of a…little cold…' Kanda snickered.

'It's _Allen, _idiot Kanda…' Allen gasped.

'I suppose we should be thankful that it isn't blowing a gale or something, sure the temperature's a negative number but it could be worse.' Drake said aloud, they had been able to make it to a flat, rocky plateau just before the blizzard hit, so it was easier to navigate at least, and the blizzard was not blowing so hard that it was a complete whiteout, Drake could make out the shapes of mounds in the distance.

'Dammit...' Kanda muttered, he was well on his way to sleep, the cold was numbing, and it somehow made him feel warm and comfortable at the same time.

_A very long time later…_

Kanda opened his eyes slowly, his vision was blurred and he felt light-headed and drowsy.

'Good morning sleeping beauty, did you sleep well?' A mocking voice sounded, Kanda rubbed his eyes, and turned to find Drake staring at him with a mischievous grin on his face as he held a book in his hands.

'Where are we?' Kanda asked.

'We're in the monastery that we were looking for, what do you remember?' Drake questioned him as he returned to reading.

'I remember…' Kanda muttered, as he clutched his head.

'We were caught in a blizzard.'

'Yes, we were…anything else?'

'It was…really cold.'

'And then?'

'I felt really warm all of a sudden…'

'Go on…'

'And then I felt really sleepy, so sleepy I couldn't keep my eyes open.'

'Yes well, that's what happens when one gets hypothermia.'

'…Where's the beansprout?'

'I'm surprised, are you actually concerned for his well-being?'

'Just shut up and answer the question.'

'Although I would've gotten a good laugh out of placing the both of you in the same bed, he's in another room.'

'How did we get here?'

'I carried you both through the blizzard.'

'…'

'No need to thank me though, I work better without it.'

'…whatever.'

'When you decide that you're well enough to stand up and walk around, I'm outside with the abbot.'

_A little while later…_

Allen made a raised head nod to acknowledge Kanda's presence as the latter sat down on the mat together with both Drake and Allen. Kanda merely grunted in response.

'Ah, the three travelers are here, so…how did you come to be here? What brings you to this desolate land?' The old, thin, wrinkled man spoke to another, the other man was young, tall, and very visibly fit and able.

'The abbot wishes to know why you come to this unforgiving place.' The man said to the trio.

'Uh…well…' Allen started but could not find the words to continue.

'We are naught but simple explorers' holy abbot; we come from distant lands in the search of adventure, we also seek to chart these unknown territories to aid any others who might come through this way.' Drake said simply.

The man turned to the Abbot and translated accordingly, the abbot smiled and said, 'then you may stay for as long as you need to, I only pray that you have a safe journey when you leave.'

'He says that you may stay, and he wishes you well on the road ahead.' Both than bowed respectfully, Drake got up and returned the bow, as did Allen although Kanda simply rolled his eyes.

Drake then led the two outside of the monastery; both exorcists noted how the land was quite rocky and devoid of snow even though it was still very cold and a little difficult to breathe.

'Why'd you lie to him?' Allen quizzed Drake as they sat down on the ground once they were some distance from the monastery.

'Allen, these guys hold their religious artifacts and whatnot in _very high_ worship, as a result, they are guarded and locked away from the viewing of even some of their own people, if we had just sauntered in and asked straight to his face if we could look around and perhaps "handle" one of them, he would have thrown us out and that would've been the end of it.' Drake jerked his thumb behind him and answered.

'Right…' Allen replied.

'So what's the plan now?' Kanda asked sardonically.

'Well…we've secured accommodation for…I give us at the max four nights before they get suspicious of our intentions…' He trailed off to let the other two draw their own conclusions.

'Let me guess, you intend to go sneaking around and look for the innocence during one or all of those nights.' Kanda rolled his eyes.

'You guessed it, which is why you two need to be ready to leave on a moment's notice, because if on any one of those nights I wake you up with the innocence in hand, we're leaving immediately, unless by some preposterous act of the almighty god there is another blizzard and we're stuck here.' Drake nodded.

'Any objections?' Drake asked, Kanda "che-ed" in response, Allen looked quite uncomfortable.

'But…that's wrong.' Allen remarked, Drake stared at him.

'It is wrong, but if you have a better idea, now's the time to spit it out.'

'Cant' we just…ask?'

'Weren't you listening just now? There is no asking because we'll get nothing and we'll get kicked out.'

'But…still…'

'Allen, no one's asking you to perform the deed, I just need you to keep your mouth shut, the rest of the monastery probably won't ask too many questions anyway.'

'So what do you want us to do in the meantime?' Kanda butted in.

'There's courtyard where some students are training, if they allow you to use it then do so, interact a bit if you want, if they don't then just be meek and try to avoid contact as much as possible.'

'And if they ask about the missing third traveler?'

'He's out surveying the landscape and plotting our journey, and you are keeping fit while he does so.'

'Right…I guess that's the plan.'

'I still don't think this is the right thing to do.' Allen piped up again.

Drake sighed, 'alright, if I don't come up with anything we'll ask, but we'll need to ask someone more persuadable, so that means the abbot is right out.'

'Alright then, you two know what to do, get to it.' Drake said curtly as he got up.

'Wait, what if someone asks why we aren't helping you?' Allen asked.

'I don't know! Get creative dammit! Must I do all the thinking for you?!' Drake raised his voice in frustration as he walked off into the distance.

_Far away in the distance…_

'Hey, come and look at this.' An Akuma said. Another one came over; the first passed his telescope to the second.

'Oh dammit! It's that those two exorcists and that shitty Halfling!' The second cursed.

'What should we do now?' The first asked, and then a shadow fell across both.

'We'll wait, they'll get the innocence for us, and then we'll steal it right out of their hands!' The third, a level three Akuma in gray, laughed hideously.

'Why can't we just attack when everyone's sleeping?' The second asked.

'You fool! We don't know where the innocence is! It could be underground for all we know! That's why we need them to find it for us, after that, the entire monastery is free game!' He laughed again.

_First night…_

Allen woke up to a shuffling sound; he saw a black shadow drift across the floor steadily.

'Any luck?' He asked

'No.' was the answer.

_Second night…_

'Did you find it?'

'I might be getting close, just sit tight.'

_Third night…_

Both Allen and Kanda jolted awake as the door slammed loudly, Drake cursed and swore under his breathe, all the while making all kinds of curious hisses and growls from his throat.

'Hey, there are people trying to sleep here.' Kanda growled, Drake shot him a dark glare from where he was standing, his crimson eyes glowing brightly in the darkness.

'Well?' Allen asked meekly.

Drake redirected his unearthly gaze at the younger exorcist, 'of course not, I had to bug out halfway, that place is really tightly guarded, so I'm guessing that's where it is.'

'So you found the place?'

'Not exactly, it's just a very good guess.' Drake admitted as he calmed down.

'Oh great…' Kanda rolled his eyes.

'What's the matter? Not liking the place because there's no soba?' Drake sneered with a hidden grin.

'Why you-!' Kanda very nearly leapt out of his blanket to draw his sword.

'Look who's not able to "tolerate this kind of thing"…' Allen laughed.

Kanda growled at the two angrily, 'I just want to be done and get out of this place.'

'…True, but be patient, I think it's within my grasp, I need you to wait a little longer, it's testing my patience too.' Drake sighed.

'Oh, and guys? In order to make a quick exit, I recommend you shed all unnecessary items, just the necessities in case we get caught in another blizzard or something.'

_Fourth night…_

'Both of you get up! We're leaving now!' Drake exploded into their room; both Kanda and Allen were shocked out of their sleep, both scrambled to put on their belongings.

'And keep it down; we're trying to make a quiet exit.' He hissed.

'You have it?' Kanda whispered as loudly as he dared.

'Yeah, its innocence alright, the shard is in my coat pocket, now let's go already!'

'Wait, is it clear weather outside?' Allen asked.

'Yeah I just checked before making the heist, now move it!'

They were out of the door and into the courtyard, when several dozen shadows moved to surround them, all brandishing weapons of some sort.

Drake acted purely on instinct, he dropped his bag on the ground immediately, and with a single slash from his blade, sliced all the tips of the spears of and shortened the staves.

He was the only exception though; the other two were caught off guard and easily subdued, although Kanda was able to fend them of for a while until he was hit on the back of the head.

'Well now…_this sucks_.' Drake muttered as the monks surrounded him.

**My geography is pretty bad, so I don't know if I described the Himalayas correctly, also, take the entire story as happening at an altitude where normal breathing is still fairly possible.**

**I'm also not too clear on culture in the Himalayas, but I believe such a reclusive society would not be overly accepting of strangers.**

**What do you think?**


	23. Chapter 22: Whiteout fight

**A smaller chapter this time, it continues on directly from the previous chapter.**

'YOU KNEW YOU WERE BEING WATCHED?!' Allen nearly screamed at the top of his lungs.

'Well what was I supposed to do about it? Kill him?' Drake asked.

'You could've stopped and waited or something…'

'Oh and what good would that have done? May as well give it a shot, they already would've known what I was trying to do anyway.'

'Well I guess we can presume that you weren't subtle enough.' Kanda pitched in with a smirk, Drake turned his gaze upon him.

'Oh so now _not only_ are you some samurai guy, you're also ninja? Funny, I didn't see you try to sneak past three layers of guards and pick your way through ten million of the most complicated padlocks ever made!' Drake shot back.

'…Goddammit! Will this mission ever end?' Kanda finally hissed angrily as he lay down.

Drake squinted at him, 'we're at the roof of the world pal…there's only the three of us, just be glad I talked my way out.'

'Oh yeah, "talked your way out".' Allen rolled his eyes sarcastically.

_Flashback, a few minutes ago…_

'Well now…_this sucks_.' Drake muttered as the monks surrounded him.

'Surrender now interloper, and give back our sacred and most holy relic.' A voice rang out as one of the monks came through the crowd and faced Drake directly; it was the same one who had been their translator.

'Or what?' Drake hissed, just feeling the least bit daring from having stolen it in the first place.

'Or-' the monk was cut off by Drake.

'Yeah yeah I know…my friends will be killed or will go through a less than pleasant experience.' Drake waved his hand in circles as he said so.

'How'd you know?' The monk asked, quite incredulous at Drake's presumptions.

'That's usually how it goes… and for the record, they aren't my friends.' Drake answered.

'I see…' The monk then took a short sword and held it dangerously close to Allen's neck, Allen yelped at that.

'So I suppose it matters not that they die?' The monk questioned with a smug grin.

'…No, it's not alright if they die.' Drake said after a pause.

He continued before anyone could say anything else, 'after all, one doesn't throw away a tool that is not yet broken no?'

'That's kind off why I need them alive, you see, they haven't lost their usefulness yet.' Allen stared at Drake in shock.

'Tools eh? So this is how you treat your comrades-in-arms?'

'…Yes?'

'Interesting for a man of your disposition, although perhaps… it is not so surprising after all, given your…history...'

'If you truly knew my history…you would know that I could kill you in a blink and the rest of your "friends" within five blinks and then be out of here with them in ten.'

'Also interesting…but would you?'

'I normally go out of my way to avoid unnecessary killing, but I won't hesitate or twitch if I have to.'

The monk stared at Drake, Drake returned with his unearthly crimson gaze.

'In that case, then if you will allow us to escort you back into your accommodation, we can all leave peacefully for the night, besides, there is a storm brewing.' He gestured behind him.

He was right, although Drake had seen a clear sky while trying to steal the relic, he had forgotten that Mother Nature was a fickle person in these parts, and so clouds could be seen gathering, visibly dark clouds.

'_Oh shit, he's right.'_ Drake swore silently in his thoughts, although he never let a trace of it grace his face, instead he turned back to the leader monk and said, 'it seems you have us at a disadvantage.'

'It would seem that way.'

'Fine then, I surrender.' Drake sheathed his sword along his back and took out the innocence shard from his pocket and held it out in front of the monks.

The leader monk motioned to the others to let Allen and Kanda go, both made their way back to where Drake stood, all the while glaring at him, Drake then tossed the shard back to the leader monk, and with that the three went back into their little house.

_The next morning…_

All three were pretty much hauled before the abbot early in the morning; both exorcists sat down fairly gingerly, keeping a watchful eye on the armed monks surrounding them, Drake paid them no mind.

'So, you come to our monastery under the guise of explorers while in truth seeking to steal our artefacts, you circumvent so many trials and tribulations and dangers just to arrive at this place for such a paltry intention, I cannot help but wonder…why?' The Abbot stroked this beard and spoke slowly, the monk that had threatened the trio translated accordingly, Kanda noted the disdain in his voice.

With little else to go on, Allen ended up being the one out of the three to explain their intentions; he fully explained how the artefact had turned out to be an innocence shard, and the war with the Earl of Millennium.

'I see…but why didn't you ask us?' The abbot asked again.

'I…_we_…didn't think that you would have agreed in any case.' Allen admitted while glaring at Drake, who returned a nonchalant stare in response.

'So, with that in mind…you chose to steal it?'

'It was his idea!' Allen quickly pointed at Drake.

'You concurred.' Drake replied in a bored voice.

'I did not!'

'Yes you did.'

'Be quiet the both of you!' The abbot raised his voice suddenly.

'Chin, do you have it?' He asked the one who had spoken with Drake.

'Yes Holy Abbot, here it is.' Chin reached into his robes and held out the innocence shard.

_Some distance away…_

'There it is! I see it!' An Akuma shouted triumphantly and handed his telescope to another Akuma.

'That's the innocence alright! Now! Attack!' The Second shouted and pointed at the monastery, at his command, dozens of level ones flew through the air and fired was they were in range of the monastery.

Allen's eye activated at the same time, 'Akuma!' He shouted.

Right on cue, a level one burst through the roof, and began firing on everyone, the monks dove for cover, Drake unsheathed his blade and hurled it at the Akuma in one swift motion, bisecting it instantly, although it mattered little, as several more appeared.

Allen watched the Akuma get destroyed, and was shocked when it saw the soul trapped inside scream in pain and anguish as the dark matter devoured it. He wanted to grab Drake roughly and confront him, but several more explosions distracted him.

Both he and Kanda activated their innocence and ran out into the courtyard, both were surprised by the fact that a blizzard was blowing, but were undeterred and proceeded to hack their way through the incoming targets with no difficulty.

As it happened, Drake's first thought was to ensure the safety of the innocence shard; he turned to where "Chin" had been standing, only to find his gone.

'_Dammit, now I've got to find that bastard.' _Drake hissed angrily, wondering what the monk had been thinking, just then he heard a loud scream coming from the back of the monastery.

'_Of course, he'd try to hide it away, the idiot.' _Drake cursed and ran towards the sound, he found himself looking on a fairly gruesome sight, Chin was bloodied and lying on the ground, while a bird-like Akuma was dropping the shard into a box.

'Thank goodness the Earl could provide as with this…what?' It was startled when it saw Drake, before Drake could move, it shouted, 'fly away stupid Halfling! Feel my slashing wind!' It spread it wings and began flapping them rapidly, Drake saw what was coming and held up his sword, just managing to block a massive rush of wind, Drake gasped as he felt the wind seemed to tear him apart, but he held together, although when it was over, he was just able to spy the dim outline of the Akuma as it flew into the blizzard.

'God-dammit!' He swore loudly to no one in particular, and headed back to the courtyard.

_In the courtyard…_

'Kanda look out!' Allen yelled as several Akuma came up behind Kanda.

Kanda grunted, he was now dual wielding with his innocence, and with one great slash destroyed the three behind him, and then he noticed something else.

'Behind you beansprout!' He shouted as an Akuma appeared right behind Allen.

'Wha-?' Allen turned, just in time to see the Akuma split in half vertically by Drake who slammed his sword with his feet through the Akuma, then he flipped forward, grabbed his blade midway through the flip, did a second downward slash that destroyed another Akuma, then spun while grabbing his gun from his back and blasting a third as it appeared out of the blizzard.

Allen clutched his eye as he saw the souls get consumed by dark matter, but he quickly ran over to Drake and asked, 'did you get the shard?'

'No, the bloody idiot ran away and got caught, I couldn't save the poor bastard, and the Akuma got away.'

'So…what now?' Allen asked.

'Hey, the attack's stopped for some reason!' Kanda walked over to them.

'Yeah, that's because they got the innocence, and are flying away with it.' Drake hissed.

'…Both of you stay here! I'm going out.' Drake told the two firmly after a moment, and ran off.

'Hey, get back here!' Allen shouted as Drake ran off into the blizzard.

'Dammit, we can't let him go by himself!' Allen hissed angrily and ran off as well.

'Oh shit.' Kanda muttered under his breath, and then he headed out as well.

Thankfully for Drake, the blizzard had not been blowing for too long, the hard, rocky ground was not entirely covered in snow that it was a misery to have to run through it, even though it was a compete whiteout, Drake could still track the Akuma through the raging blizzard with his abilities.

'_Where are you?'_ Drake watched the skies, scanning for the dark spot with a small green shine.

'…_There you are!' _He grinned triumphantly and ran straight for it; he chased it across the plateau, not knowing if the ground might just disappear under his feet, miraculously though, somehow it did not, and he eventually caught up to it, it the blowing wind and snow of the blizzard, he aimed his gun, his target was at least a hundred meters away, and he noticed that there were numerous other dark spots as well, he took careful aim.

And fired, it was a magically powered shot, so that neither wind nor snow would affect it, and he watched as it collided with the target in the sky, and the dark spot disappeared while dim green glow fell from the sky, Drake raced after it, hoping that it would not fall into a ravine, by some miraculous chance it did not, and he picked up the box and opened it, he breathed a small sigh of relief at the sight of the shard and pocketed it before smashing the box with a powerful stomp.

He turned, and was surprised to see two lonely green glows some distance away.

'_Oh god no.' _He swore again.

He found the two of them wandering aimlessly through the area, and jumped them by throwing a small rock at Allen's head.

'Ow!' Allen rubbed his head and turned in the direction the rock had come from, just in time to see Drake step out of the blizzard, he pulled the scarf covering his mouth and nose down and yelled over the howling wind.

'Did I not tell you to stay at the fucking monastery?!'

'Do you have the innocence shard?' Allen shouted back.

'Yeah!' Drake showed the both of them the shard in his pocket, 'now we'd better head back before something else happens!' He continued.

And the trio turned to move back, they were interrupted when dozens of Akuma appeared out of the snow and began firing on them, but before the trio could respond, they ran back into the whiteout and into hiding.

'Dammit! What now?!' Kanda asked as Drake blew several out of the sky by firing into the blizzard.

'We have to get away! We're too far from the monastery! Defend as best as you can, stay together and don't get separated!' With that said, the trio backed up against each other, and slowly beat back each of the Akumas advances, taking occasional shots and destroying a few, after a while of aimlessly walking through the blizzard, it seemed to slowly clear up, and Drake could see the outline of a cliff face a distance away.

'I see a cliff face; we can keep to it and use it to guide us!' He shouted as he took a snapshot that destroyed to Akuma together.

'Well what're we waiting for? Let's go!' Allen replied, so saying the trio dashed at full speed, dodging and blocking fire all the way.

'Back up against it and follow it! At least they can't shoot at us from every damn direction now…' Drake shouted as he began moving in one direction along the cliff face, the other two followed suit, they continued this way for quite a distance, until suddenly the storm seemed to lift, and they got a look at their current predicament.

'Oh shit, well that was unexpected…' Drake remarked as he stared over the precipice.

'Well? Any ideas?' Kanda asked sarcastically, their backs were now literally to the cliff face, above them lay a steep cliff, below a sheer drop, and on both sides the Akuma continued to duck in and out of the snow, and all around the cliff and peak while firing at the trio, Drake got off a few shots every time one popped his head up, destroying several, but there were so many that it did not matter. The trio were effectively trapped.

Then Drake heard something, it was almost as though the wind was whispering to him, _'Jump…jump…debt…unpaid.'_

'The hell?' He swore and looked around.

'What's wrong?' Allen asked, he remained watchful.

'I don't know, I thought I heard…whoa!' All three felt an immense shudder and looked up; they made out something that seemed to be falling toward them along the steep cliff side.

'Avalanche!' Kanda called out.

'Say your prayers shitty exorcists! If we can't have the innocence, then neither will you!' One of the Akuma popped out from below and laughed at the trio while floating from in front of them, Drake fired a snapshot that exploded it instantly. Allen growled disdainfully at that.

'Well what now?' Allen asked as the avalanche approached.

'We…' Drake paused as he closed his eyes for a moment, the words sounded once again, _'fall…fall…I am here…'_

'Well?'

'We jump.'

'What?' Allen stared at Drake in shock.

'We jump.'

'Have you lost it?'

'No, I think we should jump.'

'Hey, there's a lot of air between here and the ground below you know.' Kanda interrupted.

'I know that, but there's an avalanche on the way.' Drake gestured above him, it was now _very _close.

'But we can't just-' Allen protested.

'JUMP!' Drake shouted, he grabbed the collars of both his companions and leapt of the cliff and into a dive just as the avalanche thundered over where they were.

Allen kept his eyes shut tightly, he felt the wind rushing by his face and thought, _'this is how I die, goodbye Lenalee, good bye Miranda, goodbye Krory, goodbye everyone…'_

And then he felt a massive jerk and suddenly felt himself sitting and found himself hanging on to something hard. He opened his eyes, and was shocked by what he saw.

He was sitting on a massive, long, slender and scaly body of something; it had large, leathery wings closer to the front, and curved spikes along its spine, one of which he was now holding as it flew through the sky.

'What?' He asked in shock, Drake turned to look at him.

'Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost.' Drake remarked with his insufferable grin.

'What…what is this…what happened?' Allen asked, still stunned, behind him, Kanda was also coming to grips with the new experience.

'Both of you…I would like you to meet the prince of the sky…the cloud dragon Ventus.' Drake smiled at the both of them.

'Cloud Dragon?!' Both shouted at the top of their voice.

'Indeed, I have owed a debt of life to him for two millennia now; today I am finally able to repay it.' The beast spoke as it soared through the sky with the trio on its back.

'And damn if that wasn't good timing Ventus, but now I need help from you.' Drake said.

'Ah yes, those troublesome things you humans call "Akuma", at least there aren't too many, if not I might have trouble on my scales.' Ventus answered, so saying, he flew upwards and returned to the place where the trio had fallen off.

'Did we get them?' One Akuma asked another.

'Of course we did! There was no way they could have escaped from that!' The second replied.

'The Earl will certainly be pleased that we got rid of two of them, and that damn Halfling too!' A third cackled, all were in for a rude shock when a long, large and scaly beast appeared before them, Ventus sucked in a breath of air, and before any of the Akuma could react, a lightning bolt crackled and arced from the dragon's mouth in a brilliant display that shot right through the first Akuma, before jumping to the second and the third, destroying all three instantly. As he did though, more arrived and began firing on the dragon.

'Find somewhere to put us down! We can fight on our own.' Drake said as the dragon twisted and turned through the air to dodge the attacks while replying with his own.

'A sound plan.' Ventus noted as he let off one last lightning bolt that destroyed several more Akuma before flying away; Allen winced as he saw the souls trapped in the Akuma get devoured by the Dark matter and vanish screaming.

'I think we can go back to that plateau outside the monastery, should give us lots of room, do you know where it is?'

Ventus laughed, 'I have lived here most of my life after you rescued me, so I know this place like the back of my claw.'

'Quit laughing then, let's move.'

'As you say.' Ventus then dived away from the Akuma and a few minutes later, they were at the rocky plateau where the-now partially destroyed- monastery was.

The monks looked in shock as the cyan and white dragon descended from the sky with the three "travellers" riding on its back, they immediately came out and kowtowed to the dragon, much to the amusement of Drake and Ventus.

Drake spoke first as he leapt of the dragons back, 'stop that and get back inside you nitwits, it's going to be a wild fight!' He ushered the monks and spun around, watching the black specks that dotted the sky.

'Well they certainly didn't waste any time.' Drake noted.

'You still have the innocence shard right?' Kanda quizzed.

'Yeah.' Drake replied as he reached into his pocket and looked down at the glowing green sphere.

'Well, here they come.' Allen said as he panted from the adrenaline rush.

'No, I've had enough.' Drake said with a hint of anger in his voice.

'What?'

'I said I've had enough of this BS, I'm sick and tired of blizzards and the cold and the snow…and the both of you as well.' So saying he unsheathed his sword, held it in front of himself horizontally, and then he gripped the bottom of the blade with his left claw, and slowly ran it across the blade.

'Uh…Drake?'

'Stay behind me, I'm going to eradicate the lot.'

As he did, the other two watched as the blade began to fizzle and crackle energy, red lightning danced along its edge, becoming more and more energetic and lively until Drake reached the end, whereupon he held it behind him and began spinning it rapidly.

As this was happening the Akuma got closer and closer, their shots began to impact the surrounding area, with both exorcists and Ventus blocking and dodging.

'Here they come!' Kanda hissed between gritted teeth.

'If you're going to do something Drake, do it now!' Kanda shouted, Drake remained completely still, he continued spinning his blade rapidly, now the blade was a whirling mass of crackling, sparking energy.

And then something incredible happened, as the first of the Akuma loomed towards them, Drake suddenly swung the blade forward. Enhanced not only with his powers but by the momentum delivered with the spin, a massive wave of red energy erupted from it as he swung it, it grew in width as it spread, vaporising and incinerating all the Akuma it caught in a spectacular display.

While both Kanda and Ventus was impressed to some extent, Allen could only wince as the souls trapped in the Akuma were devoured and disappeared screaming in agony. He made a mental note to confront Drake about this later.

_A long time later…_

The trip back was a lot easier; Ventus deposited them at the base of the mountain before flying away after giving thanks, and when he left, Drake forced them to swear that they would never speak of the dragon ever again, whether or not they were questioned.

Later on the train ship out of India, Allen finally confronted Drake.

'The souls in the Akuma, they died screaming.'

'Yes…well…that's what happens when you destroy one without using innocence.'

'And you can live with that?' Allen raised his voice, trying to keep down his anger.

'I've lived through worse.'

'Those souls, I saw their pain as they were wiped out, destroyed by what they were bonded to.'

'What's your point Snow-head?'

'Those are people suffering right there!'

'You make it sound like something I should be concerned about.'

'You aren't concerned what happens to other people?'

'…No?'

For some reason, Allen was stunned, even Kanda showed traces of compassion and caring, Drake it seemed, could not…or maybe _would not_ show any at all.

'You don't care?'

'Should I care?'

'…Yes?'

'Oops, I guess I don't.'

'But…why?'

'There is no why, I just don't care, better them than me, it's us or them anyway.'

'…'

'In any case, I have no idea why you would sacrifice yourself; your life is worth much more just because you can wield innocence you know.'

'How do you know that?'

'Well for one, the individual human is quite weak emotionally; two, as I said, you can wield innocence, that alone makes you worth a lot more.'

'Does it now?'

'Yes it does.' Drake said firmly, 'and I expect you to put that to good use, and not run around waving your arms whenever something happens, this is a war Allen, you don't give a shit about the other side, you're not supposed to give a shit about the other side, you're supposed to destroy them and win, not care about every daisy and rose that gets stomped on along the way.'

'How can you be so…cold?'

'How? How you ask? You want to know why I can kill and make others suffer without blinking, I'll tell you why, because unlike you, I've spent a massive portion of my life fighting just to survive, which is why I don't a shit about anyone else.' Drake was now staring intently at Allen, who flinched from his crimson eyes, but then he looked away.

'Forget it, you wouldn't understand, go bother and bicker with Kanda or something.'

And just like that Allen left Drake, who continued staring aimlessly out into the sea.

**And that closes one more chapter.**

**What do you think?**


	24. Chapter 23: Sand, Dust and Aristocrats

**I have somehow made a habit of breaking records for word count again and again, do let me know if a chapter is getting unbearably long, this one tops at five thousand and a half plus.**

* * *

><p>Drake stepped off the gangplank and inhaled a deep breath of air.<p>

'Ah, the sweet smell and taste of the dry, barren desert, I'm home.' He grinned to himself, he turned when he heard a yelp, and Miranda Lotto tumbled down the gangplank and landed on her butt painfully.

'Is that the third time already? Would you like me to start keeping a tally of all the accidents you've had?' Drake smiled as he looked down at her.

Miranda rubbed her back painfully and shielded her eyes as she looked at Drake, who looked like a tall, dark shadow with his back against the sun, 's-sorry.' She made an awkward grin.

'C'mon, get up already.' Drake offered his hand to her.

'T-thank you.' She was gratefully accepted his hand.

Krory came down soon after, 'so this is what a desert looks like.'

'Oh no, we're in a fairly urban area near the mouth of the River Nile, it only looks green because…' He trailed off as he searched for a reason.

'Because...?'

'Because…the Nile…does something…and then it carries it to the sea…and that's why it's green.' Drake said finally.

'That's not very informative.' Krory rubbed his forehead.

'Um, Drake?' Miranda started.

'What?'

'Why did you say I had to wear this?' She gestured to her black Hijab.

'Oh that's because of where we are, this is Islamic territory, you have to wear that because their religion says so, don't ask me why, I don't read the Koran.'

'The Koran?'

'That's their religious text, the Islamic equivalent of the bible, but it's supposed to be harder to read or something, anyway I don't know, and I don't particularly care.' Drake answered.

'Anyway, I have a friend meeting us here, he should be-'

'As-salamu alaykum Drake.' a tan skinned man with a short beard and moustache appeared from out of nowhere.

'Wah alaykum es salamu, how have you been Malik?' The two shook hands and touched their cheeks together.

'Very well, and you?' He returned, Drake gave a small smile and shrugged.

'You know how it is.'

'Indeed, still chasing demons eh? And these two?'

'Ah right, this is Miranda Lotto,' He gestured to Miranda, 'and Arystar Krory the third. The two of you, I'd like you to meet Malik, he's a resident of this area, a Bedouin, and he knows this place better than the back of his hands.'

'Drake speaks highly of me; it looks like I have much to live up to.' Malik chuckled.

'So where are we headed?' Miranda asked.

'The location Drake sent me is a set of ruins along the River Nile, so we shall use that as our mode of transport, and at least we shall not lack for water on the journey.' Malik answered.

'Hopefully not, you guys packed what I ordered you to right?' Drake asked, both gave an affirmative nod.

* * *

><p><em>A few days ago…<em>

When Allen got up, his stomach rumbled as usual, signaling his imminent need for sustenance. Driven by this need, he headed to the canteen after doing a quick wash up.

He was surprised to find that the canteen was almost completely devoid of life, there was literally no one there at all, except for Miranda and Krory, both of whom were eating at a table on their own, although he greeted them and they returned it, there was no one else around. He dismissed this when his stomach rumbled again, figuring that the fewer people there were meant that there was more food available for him.

When he got to the ordering area, he could see a shadow shuffling around in the back, assuming that the shadow was Jerry; he called out, 'Jerry, I need my breakfast usual please!'

He got no response, so he tried again, 'Jerry?!' He called out one more time, the shadow continued moving around in the back without apparently taking notice of him.

'Hey Jerry what's the holdup?!'

'I'm not Jerry you dimwit.' A cold voice rang out from the kitchen, and then Drake stepped out and around the corner.

'Where's Jerry?'

'I think he called in sick, here's the notice.' So saying he handed Allen a slip of paper, the paper read, "Have the flu, will not be working today, recommend going out to town."

'WHAT?!' Allen screamed out loud, Drake clapped his hands over his ears just in time.

'What am I going to eat, oh no I'm going to starve…' Allen moaned as he knees shook and gave out under him, and he fell against the counter.

'Well I'm digging through the pantry now, nothing there really worth eating though, unless you don't mind eating dried and preserved foodstuff.'

'What? I can't subsist on dried foodstuff! I need Jerry's cooking!' Allen wailed.

'Oh well, guess you're going to have to wait until he recovers.' Drake stated and returned to the back, opened a door and walked out to face Allen; he was holding a sandwich and munching on it as he leaned against the counter with Allen slumped down beside him.

'I'm starving,' Allen said, 'I'm going to die of starvation…'

'There's bread in the back and some other stuff, why don't you stop complaining and go make yourself something.'

'I can't…I can't move…too tired…need Jerry's cooking…' Allen gasped out.

'Then starve and die.' Drake said as he walked away.

Allen sighed, and pulled himself up and dragged himself into the kitchen, he was able to put something together, and then drag himself to the table with Miranda and Krory.

Both Miranda and Krory had been eating in an awkward silence before Allen came over, Miranda shifted to allow Allen room, they had not been able to catch up since Allen had been training with Drake and thanks to their long trip to the Himalayas.

Allen was surprised when he found himself releasing a lot of tension as he conversed with Krory and Miranda about recent events.

'He…He doesn't care?' Krory said with shock when Allen told him about Drake.

'I don't think he does anyway, he certainly didn't let any emotion get to him when he said it.' Allen sighed, Drake was still a complete enigma despite the fact that they had already known each other personally for several weeks already, although Allen had a feeling that Drake knew _far_ more than he let on, Allen had even concocted a theory in his own head that Drake knew pretty much everything somehow, and that he was a _lot _older than he looked.

'Say…' Allen said suddenly.

'Yes?' Miranda responded.

'How old does Drake look to you?'

'Oh…err…I'd say about…nineteen…twenty-ish?' Miranda remarked.

'Closer to early twenties I would think.' Krory added

'Hm.'

'Is something the matter?'

'Wha…? Oh…err…no I'm fine thank you.'

Just then a voice called out from a distance away, 'Miranda! Krory! Brother wants you to meet him!' Lenalee smiled when she saw Allen, who returned it.

'Wonder what Komui wants.' Krory scratched his head.

'Well let's find out.' Miranda smiled awkwardly at him, Krory gave an equally awkward smile back and the two moved off.

A short while later both of them were in Komui's office, surprisingly enough, so was Drake, this was his third mission in less than a quarter of the year, most exorcists were allowed time off between missions, so it was a wonder that he seemed to have gotten every available mission there was.

'Where do you find out about this?' Komui asked incredulously.

Drake shrugged, 'gut feeling.'

Komui squinted at him, 'regardless, I think you need to take a break, you already volunteered for the last mission, you should conserve your energy and use when it is necessary, not using it at every opportunity.' At this Drake, who had been fidgeting with his fingers, directed his gaze at the supervisor and smirk.

'I've had worst times Komui, I prefer to just do whatever comes my way, keeps me sharp to an extent, although not as sharp as I would prefer.'

'I…see…well then, since both Miranda and Krory are here, I'll explain, some ruins have been recently unearthed along the river Nile, however the entire digging team vanished…' Komui trailed off.

'…and regrettably a team of finders that were sent to investigate…disappeared as well with no trace.'

Miranda let out a small gasp at the statement, Krory swallowed hard.

'I guess you did not send anyone else out?' Drake inquired.

'No, our manpower has become especially reduced with the two attacks the Earl did on us, there were many casualties…and few replacements.' Komui added the last part with a sigh.

'Aw, don't feel bad, if you could've done something you would've done it right?' Drake said in a strange, half-assuring, half-mocking tone.

Komui looked up at Drake, and wondered what Drake was trying to do, was he trying to draw out Komui and gauge his reaction somehow? Or was it something else? His motives were still a complete mystery to all, and his eyes…two deep set crimson orbs that could seemingly bored holes straight through a person and out the other side, it was so utterly unnerving that some had actually complained about it. Even Bak, had remarked on how Drake seemed to exude an almost "evil" presence wherever he went and whatever he touched.

Komui did not realize he had been staring at Drake until the latter spoke up, 'anything else before we continue our staring competition supervisor?

'Wha…? Oh yes…erm…ok with the uncovering of the ruins and the subsequent disappearance of the original excavation crew with no traces, the local government has banned further excavation, although the guards sent to the site…'

'Vanished with no trace as well.' Drake completed.

'Yes, as a result the government issued a warning not to travel anywhere near the area, and we're a bit stretched at the moment, so you may have to find your own way there.'

'No problem, I have a friend living there, I can contact him to help us.'

'In that case, I wish you good luck…and Drake?'

'Yeah?'

'We've prepared everything for you already, just in case you decide to make off with one of our boats again.'

Drake grinned at that.

'So we're going grave robbing?' Drake finished.

'Not grave robbing per se…'

'So what are we doing?'

'You're going to investigate and find innocence, and bring it back if you do.'

'Which amounts to grave robbing.'

'…'

Soon enough of course, the trio was standing at the docks waiting for their ship to the Egyptian port of Alexandria. Miranda noted that Drake seemed to be in a good mood, he kept giving a small smile every once on a while as he gazed out across the sea, she thought better than to question him though, thinking that it might ruin his mood.

'I have sent word to a friend of mine living in the area, he will escort as to our destination.' Drake suddenly said.

'Did the both of you bring the stuff I told you to?' Drake continued as he turned and looked at them.

'Ah…yes, I have that long slip of cloth you gave me and heavy clothing…' Miranda trailed off.

'And you?' Drake eyed Krory.

'Er…yes…'

'Ok…'

'Did you make sure they had references whatsoever to the church?'

'Yes.'

They stood in silence for a bit before Drake spoke again, 'alright spit it out you two, what's the problem?'

'What? No! Nothing's wrong!' Miranda tried to assure him.

'Will you just speak up? I'm going to devour your soul or anything.' Drake sighed exasperatedly.

'Erm, I don't get why we need to bring thick clothing, we're going to the desert aren't we?' Krory chipped in.

'Yes, we are, and the temperature at night is absolutely freezing even for someone who _actually lives _in the desert, and the thick clothing will protect you from the sheer heat of the sun when it's say…the afternoon…trust me.'

'Oh, alright, but why should we trust you?' Krory suddenly questioned.

'Krory!' Miranda hissed.

'No, you've been acting all tall dark and mysterious since you came to the Order, I think it's time we get some answers from you.' Krory said as firmly as he could, to disguise the fact that he was shaking inside.

It did not entirely go unnoticed though; Drake noticed his knees knocking together, but he was impressed enough not to tell him about it.

'Alright, I guess you deserve some answers, but you do know that paying for trust means that it isn't really trust right?'

'…I…know that.'

'But I guess you deserve answers anyway, you should trust me because I grew up there.'

'…what?'

'You heard me, Egypt was my home once upon a time, of course we –as in my family and I- eventually moved elsewhere, away from it…still brings back fond memories though.' Miranda noted that Drake's demeanor had changed on the last part, and he began blinking more rapidly and seemed to be clenching his fist repeatedly.

'But…erm…what does this do?' Miranda held up the black piece of cloth that Drake had given her, having stated that she "needed" it.

'That's for you to wear as a _Hijab _Egypt is largely Islamic, and traditional Muslim belief is that a woman should be as modest as possible and should therefore, cover up as much as possible, especially the head, I think they consider the hair to be the sexiest part of a woman or something along those lines…in any case you need to wear that when we get there, otherwise we might…' He trailed off.

'We might…?'

'Get into some pretty freaking serious trouble, but no matter, I think that's our ship.' Drake nodded at a shape coming out of the horizon.

And before long, they were in the port of Alexandria, Egypt, with Drake's friend Malik having just met the two exorcists.

'It is well and good that you advised her to bring a _Hijab_, Allah knows what could happen if any locals saw her without it.'

'Indeed, have you heard of the disappearances?'

'Have I heard? They are the talk of the city! Some British folks came down first, and then when communication was lost a search party was sent, and then that disappeared too.'

'Right…but I think that's enough talk, is your family ready?'

'Yes, the journey is a few days proper though, at least we shall not lack for water along the river.'

'Well,' Drake now turned to the two exorcists, 'anything to declare before we go?'

Both shook their heads

'Oh well, guess we should be going then.'

'Hey Drake, who's Malik?' Miranda whispered into Drake's ear as they walked through the bustling streets of Alexandria

'He's a Bedouin, but he's a little different, he and his group don't move around as much the rest, they tend to be a bit more liberal than most Muslims, so don't worry too much about harassment, and they hang around the city a bit more than the rest of their ethnicity, but they are still nomads at heart, and we were lucky enough that he was in the area, or else we'd have to rely on my memory.' Drake whispered back.

'…Right.'

'Are you alright? I saw you whispering to Drake.' Krory asked her.

'I'm fine Krory, no need to worry.' She smiled.

As they walked through Alexandria, Miranda was struck by how all the women were similarly dressed in a loose dress and what Drake called a "Hijab", except some of them wore it such that only a slit where their eyes could be seen was visible.

Besides that though, both Drake and Miranda had to ensure that Krory was keeping up, for he kept getting distracted by the various stalls selling various items.

'Your friend seems very interested in the works of Arabia.' Malik laughed as Miranda pulled Krory away from another stall selling fine carpets.

'Yes well…he spent his entire life in his grandfather's mansion caring for artifacts and…other things.' Drake sighed.

'Hm…and you seem troubled somehow.'

'Lots of things trouble me Malik; you should know that by now.'

'Indeed, and yet you are perfectly willing to let them.'

'Well what am I supposed to do? Live the carefree and responsibility free lifestyle of a fool?'

'Hypocrite, you have said before that it is a joyous thing to be a fool rather than a wise person.'

'Yes I have, but _joyous doesn't mean good_.'

'And yet, it is always the fools that live the happiest, most stress free lives wouldn't you say?'

Drake had no answer to that.

Sometime later, the three were on the banks of the Nile River, and met with Malik's family.

'This is my family, my wife Aziza, my daughter Laila, my uncle Abdullah, his wife Fatima, and my mother Mariam.' He introduced his entire family.

Both exorcists blinked, neither had seen such a large family staying together before, Drake simply smiled, having met them all before.

'Uncle Drake!' Laila squealed happily and ran over to hug Drake tightly, she was barely higher than his waist, and her bright cheery face had all the innocence of every young child.

Drake patted her on the top of her head and said, 'yes and I'm happy to see you to, now please let go before you crush my bones.' He smiled awkwardly.

'You're going to stay with us a while longer aren't you? Please tell me you're not leaving so soon.'

'Yes, in fact, I'm traveling with you down the Nile.'

Laila gave an even brighter smile, 'and are those your friends?' She pointed to both Miranda and Krory.

'…Yes, sort of.' Drake said with some hesitation.

'Well friends of Uncle Drake are friends of mine as well, nice to meet you! I'm Laila, and this is my family.' She smiled at the other two, who both returned the smile warmly.

'We're pleased to meet all of you.' Miranda replied cheerily.

* * *

><p><em>A couple of days later…<em>

'That is the place that you seek.' Malik pointed out to several stone structures and columns in the distance as they stood on a hill.

It had been fairly hard for both exorcists, neither of whom had seen a desert in their lives much less been in one, the alternately burning days and freezing nights were especially hard. Both held up fairly well though, except for the occasional falling of a sand dune and needing to be dragged back up again, and the few snakes and arachnids that got into tents and needed to be let out with much shouting.

'I see it, thanks for all the help up until this point Malik.' Drake smiled and shook the former's hand, who warmly returned the favor.

'What? Are you leaving already Uncle Drake?' Laila whined fairly loudly.

'Technically, it's you who's leaving; I have to stay to finish some business.'

'Aw, when are you coming again?'

'Another time dearie, you'd better get going now.' He finished by patting her on the head, she pouted childishly but walked away with the rest of her family in the distance while waving goodbye.

'Cute little kid.' Drake noted as he stroked his chin for a moment as he watched them disappear, 'now where were…' He started while turning around, and was interrupted by a chorus of clicks.

'…we?' He found himself staring at several men garbed in black robes and brandishing their rifles, two of them held Miranda and Krory captive with an Arabic scimitar over their throats.

'Who the fuzz are you supposed to be?' Drake asked indignantly.

'Doesn't matter, just hand over your weapons and no harm will come to your friends.' One spoke, Drake noted that his English was quite good.

Drake gripped Annihilator's hilt angrily, he was loathe to let anyone handle his blade but him, but in the interest of both exorcists lives, he unsheathed and dropped it, normally he would unsheathe and hurl it into someone's face blade first, but he was curious enough to see where this would lead.

They were lead to a _massive _encampment; it looked as though a small city had been created in the middle of the desert.

'_Wonder why anyone would spend so much time and effort over some ruins, I don't even think the stone is worth that much.' _Drake thought as they were led through the encampment through what looked like a central tent on a small hill.

'Drake, what's going to happen?'

'I don't know, just keep your mouth shut and do what they say.'

'Hey shut your mouths and keep walking.' One of the men said and whipped Drake over the back of his head with his rifle butt.

Drake stumbled from the blow but kept walking, 'ouch.' He muttered silently.

When they entered, they were greeted by a trio of white men, one was tall and thin, with a sunken face and a long nose, another was short, stout, and was smoking a rather large Cuban cigar, the third was more mid-sized, well built, with a bushy moustache, a monocle in one eye and a pipe in his mouth, all wore white bucket hats, white long sleeved shirts, brown three-quarter pants and brown boots.

'_If that does not somehow reflect the stereotypical gentleman adventurer, I'm not sure what does.'_ Drake kept a straight face even as he let his thoughts wander.

The tent they were was fairly large, there were foldable chairs neatly stacked in one corner, and various tables scattered throughout, the thin man and the short man were off to one corner looking at a sheet of paper on one of the tables, while the mid-sized man was seated in the middle looking at the entrance.

'And who have you got today Mahmoud?' The well-built man said, his accent and manner in which he spoke betrayed his origin. A well-educated, upper class Englishman.

'_Englishmen…'_ Drake muttered in his thoughts, he hoped they did not end up with the one of the stuffy ones.

'Some trespassers we caught, their Bedouin guides have already left.'

'And what, may I ask, are you three doing out here in the middle of nowhere?' He got up from where he was sitting and approached them.

Drake was at a lost to come with a cover story, 'We…' He trailed off, willing himself to come up with something, and then a light bulb lit up in his mind.

'Well, it's not as if it's forbidden or anything, I mean…the desert doesn't really have any owners…does it?' Drake tried his luck.

The mid-sized gentleman sized him up and stroked his own chin, before a smile broke out on his face, 'well, I don't know who are you are boy! But I like your wit, here, sit down and have a drink.' He promptly pulled some extra foldable chairs as well as a bottle and some glasses.

The trio took their seats gingerly while the man poured from the bottle and into some glasses which he handed to the trio before sitting back down.

'My name is Jonathan Henry Simms, my colleagues are Harrison James Bosworth,' He gestured to the tall and thin one as he said so, 'and George Henley Marty.' He completed by pointing to the short and fat man.

'Good to meet you, but it's only polite to introduce yourselves in return.' The two walked over and sat down from whatever they had been looking at on another table.

The two exorcists, still slightly nervous meekly introduced themselves with a handshake to each of the three; Drake gave a much weaker handshake, although none of the three gentlemen seemed to have noticed, he was also trying to keep his head low so they would not notice his peculiar eye color.

'Anyway. You still haven't answered the question.' Jonathan said.

'We're looking for some of our…_my_…_their _friends.' He finished with a quick gesture to the two exorcists, Miranda was surprised that he referred to them in such a way.

'Well, we did get two groups of people visiting here; I can have Mahmoud show you to them.' He gestured at "Mahmoud", who was still standing guard at the entrance.

'You two go, I'll stay here.' Drake said to the two exorcists, 'find the…_finders_ and…talk to them…or something.' Miranda heard him mutter something that sounded like, 'I can't believe I said that.'

'Ok…' She timidly approached Mahmoud, who rolled his eyes and firmly said, 'Hurry up.' Before walking out with Miranda and Krory.

Drake watched them go, tracking them until they disappeared behind a tent.

'Don't worry about him too much lad, Mahmoud may be a little rough around the edges, but he's a respectable and honorable man, I can safely assure you that no harm will come to either of them.' Jonathan said.

'Actually…' Drake turned back to face them.

'I was wondering why you're holding them here.' Drake spoke, letting a hint of disdain seep into his voice.

At this, the three darkened slightly, their faces frowned slightly, and they sat up straight as if preparing for a confrontation, Drake did the same, leaning forward so his elbows rested on his knees, he tried to anticipate their reaction.

'_Will they get defensive? Or will they admit outright that something funny is going on?'_

'The same reason we will hold you and the other two here.' Harrison spoke.

'Really. And what reason is that?' Drake questioned, narrowing his eyes.

'What does it matter to you? We will let you go, once we have found it.' George now spoke.

'_It…their looking for something…treasure? Relics? Mummies?'_ Drake kept a completely straight face.

'It matters to me because I have better things to be doing then be joining you on some useless hunt for something that you won't tell me about.' Drake said, knowing that it was the truth in the end.

'Well, we can't have you telling anybody else about this, people would kill get their hands on these sorts of things lad, and we're going to ensure _we _get it, we've waited fairly long for this, and we won't have to running of to some other cheap and rich lord so that he can steal all of what we have done.' Jonathan said.

'_Hypocrite much?'_ Drake lifted an eyebrow at the last part.

'And, so that you have something to do in the meantime, you'll be working along with the laborers!' George said cheerfully, Drake barely prevented a glare from piercing through his steely face and spearing the fat man through, menial labor was not the worst thing he had ever done, but he better things to do, like plotting his revenge on the trio of gentlemen.

'Gentlemen, we're only here to look for our missing friends, not to cause trouble, so if we find them, we'll just be on our way.' Drake fought to keep the need to punch one of them really hard in the gut.

'Sorry lad, we can't let you go, you may as well pull your wait so our supplies aren't wasted on you.' Jonathan remarked as he smoked his pipe.

'_That's a novel idea! Where do they get their supplies from?' _Drake quickly noted in his mind.

'And what's to stop me from just leaving?' Drake inquired.

'Oh a number of things…' Jonathan said.

'One…we're the only source of food for a long way around here unless you want to fish with the crocs.' Drake raised an eyebrow, Jonathan smirked.

'Not convinced? Two, there's Mahmoud and his men.' Jonathan continued, Drake merely shrugged.

'And three…' As he said that, he pulled a revolver and pointed it at Drake, Drake did not flinch.

'You're going to shoot me?' Drake quizzed.

'Well, we do have the guns, and we can't take the risk of you telling anyone else about this.'

'You're that paranoid?'

'We've waited a long time for a break like this, not going let some young whippersnapper like you ruin it.'

'_Young whippersnapper?! You poor silly old fool…' _Drake couldn't be bothered to use sarcasm to demolish him, it would mean revealing too much about himself.

Pretending to feel resigned to his fate, Drake sighed and leaned back into his chair; this movement enticed the trio to relax a little, clearly thinking they had their guest under control.

'Fine, I'll just get a shovel, but I'm warning you any whips…'

'Oh no dear boy! No whips, we may be aristocrats, but we certainly aren't cruel, definitely not like those Belgians who only know how to whip people for fun, assuming you're aware of what we just said.'

Drake knew exactly what he was talking about; the Belgian Congo was a humanitarian disaster as far as he was concerned. He knew the sheer amounts of cruelty that happened on a daily basis, limps were chopped of, and the natives whipped and hacked -and worked to the death- for rubber, sheer wonton brutality for the exploitation of any and all resources, including people resources.

'In any case, the workers are hired help, all will be paid at the end of this, they're not slaves, they are _laborers_.'

Drake guessed what that entailed, but he pretended to remain resigned.

'Fine then, where's the shovel?' Drake stretched his hand out.

Elsewhere in the camp, Mahmoud led Miranda and Krory to a large tent said to contain the finder team that had been sent to investigate, the mercenary then left them to do something else.

'Hello?' Miranda asked with a slight shiver as she peeked into the tent, what she saw surprised her, the finder team was there; they all had their usual coats off and looked fairly thin, their hands appeared to be blistered and raw, all looked incredibly worn out. Several shovels and picks lay about.

'Ms. Miranda!' One of the finders looked up in surprise, 'What're you doing here?' He walked over and brought them in.

'What happened to all of you?' She asked, the finder quickly filled them in.

'We were captured on our way here by that big Arab man those British guys called "Mahmoud", they told us we were not allowed to leave and would now be hired by them to work on unearthing the ruins, they confiscated all our belongings so we weren't able to call for an emergency, and so here we are.'

'My goodness…' Miranda remarked.

'Why would they do all that?' Krory inquired.

'We don't know, but they don't want any word of it getting out, although there are rumors that there is some treasure buried within…who knows?' The finder shrugged.

'We've been working our asses of ever since, we get just enough food and water to continue, and the mercenaries frequently threaten us and the other laborers.' Another finder chipped in.

'Are you here to bail us out?' The first finder asked in a hopeful tone.

'Well-' she was cut off by a familiar voice.

'No we're not; no one is leaving until those blue bloods get what they want, which means that we're stuck here digging until we find something of value.' Drake ducked his head as he walked into the tent, he was carrying two shovels, he handed one to Krory.

'And since we have to make ourselves useful, it's back to the pits you guys, your shift is up in ten, so get ready.'

'What? We're not leaving?' The first finder exclaimed loudly.

'Well they did confiscate my weapons and they _were, _carrying guns with them, so it's not as though I had a whole lot of choice in it.' Drake replied.

'W-wait, we're going to work here?' Krory gave a small stutter.

'Well it's either that, or you can starve to death, they explicitly said that anyone who didn't work wasn't going to get any food or water.' Drake said.

'But…but I'm not physically that strong.' Krory protested.

'Well we don't have a choice, it's either that or starvation.' Drake raised his eyebrows

'And what about me?' Miranda quizzed.

'Oh they're old school, so they don't think you should be working like that, you'll just have to sit still and watch us, and drink tea in their tent since you're the only woman for a long distance.' Drake leaned on his shovel a little and put one hand on his waist for a moment.

Everyone remained silent for some time, and then they all heard a loud booming voice, 'Next shift is up!'

'That's us, Miranda, you'll have to get back to that tent we were at,' He told us, 'the rest of you are with me, now let's move it people.'

It was the hardest amount of physical labor that Krory had ever done; he had taken off both his shirt and his cloak, and was now sweating up such a fountain that Drake knew he faced the very real possibility of dehydrating and dying, therefore, he had to give up half his own water to ensure that Krory did not die.

'T-thank you…' Krory gasped as he drank thirstily.

'No problem.' Drake muttered, he was not sweating as bad, although he had removed his coat and shirt as well, revealing a strong, well chiseled figure underneath despite his lean appearance.

'How…how can you stand this so well?' Krory gasped.

'I lived here for a whole twenty years of my life, I'm used to it.' Drake shrugged.

* * *

><p>Later that night, together with Miranda, they all sat around a campfire outside their tent, all were exhausted from the day's activities, and even Drake seemed fairly worn out.<p>

'So what should we do now?' One finder quizzed.

No one answered that question, although Drake spoke up, 'We need to find where the treasure is first, and then find the innocence in it, of course it could be anywhere…' Drake noted.

He gave a very audible sigh at this, and finally said after a long pause, 'I'll wait for the next night, and I'll check out the central part of the ruins myself, until then, I suggest you all get some sleep.' He said as he headed back into the tent.

* * *

><p><strong>I've always imagined that Drake was Middle Eastern or at least from around that area.<strong>

**I only know that As-salamu alaykum is some kind of Arab greeting, and the response is a flip of those words to some extent, but that's it, if it's wrong and offends you as a result then I'm sorry.**

**Reviews are appreciated!**


	25. Chapter 24: Wormsign

**So the title references Dune, which I sadly admit that I never got around to finishing given how highly my peers seem to regard it.**

**Chapter 24: Wormsign**

Krory panted and sweated as he dug his shovel in for the umpteenth time, he paused for a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow before continuing shoveling, and the heat of the sun was unbearable to someone used to the cold, dense forests of Europe.

At the moment, he was working with the rest of the finders near a recently unearthed section, working in hourly shifts, quite a lot of sand and dirt had been dug up already. Krory was currently in the middle of his shift; Drake and his shift were resting in what little shade their section provided in the heat of the early afternoon sun, Drake had already given up most of his water for the others and Krory.

Krory spared a moment to take a passing glance at Drake; the young man was sitting with his back to a wall, staring into the distance with a blank expression on his face, every once in a while he twitched or blinked, but that was about it.

'_Is he ok?' _Krory wondered.

'Hey! Stop slacking off and get back to work.' One of the mercenaries interrupted his thoughts and walked over to him, brandishing his curved scimitar in Krory's face.

Krory was so completely drained of stamina that it was hard for him to feel fear or anything similar, he was surprised though, when Drake suddenly appeared at his side, glaring darkly at the mercenary.

He started speaking in what Krory assumed was probably Arabic, although he did not know Arabic so he could not tell.

'Leave him alone, he's a foreigner from cooler parts.' Drake spoke.

'That's no excuse for slacking off, here in the desert, all are equal.' The mercenary put away his sword and faced Drake.

'I can understand that, but give him some space and time, and he'll loosen up.'

'I don't know, and I don't particularly care, my job is to ensure that the work gets done, and also…' He trailed off for a moment and then pulled his scimitar out of its scabbard again and waved it in Drake's face, 'get back to work you, stop stalling! There'll be no rest until your shift is over.'

Drake was slightly surprised at the shift in mood; he looked around briefly to ascertain if anyone except for some of his shift was watching.

And then in one swift motion, he disarmed the mercenary, stabbed him with his own sword and pushed him onto the ground and stepped on his mouth to silence him.

'What're you doing? Are you insane?!' Joshua, leader of the finders came up to him and tried to push him away, Drake held him off.

'I'm doing this so that we can get out of here.' He replied simply as the mercenary stopped struggling.

'How? By just killing someone?!' Joshua yelled at him, they had now attracted the other finders and Krory.

'W-why would you do that?' Krory stammered a little.

'Oh hush you, I'll disguise myself, and get a peek at whatever map they have, find the entrance, get in, see if there's innocence, they we bail for our lives.' Drake rolled his eyes, 'and besides…I'm sure he knew what he was in for.' He looked at the dead mercenary, whose blood was staining the sand.'

'Now hurry up and strip and bury him, we don't have all day.' He growled impatiently. Nobody moved for a moment.

'Or would you rather the body be found and hell to be paid?' Drake glared at them.

Joshua gritted his teeth, 'Damn you! You'll be the death of us.' He hissed as he begun to dig, 'Come on, and let's hide this quickly.' He tried to assure the others, and soon the body was in a pit, and Drake was garbed in his clothing.

'I suppose it's too much to ask about your eye color?' Joshua made a sneering remark.

Drake took out a plastic case and opened it, showing two transparent hemispherical shapes inside.

'Color contacts, it's for when I need to socially interact with others in the normal world.' He grinned.

Joshua stared at Drake, his face grim as Drake took out both pieces, turned around, and when he turned back, his crimson eyes were replaced with dark brown ones.

'What do you think eh? Pretty neat no?' He smiled with a raise of an eyebrow.

'You just killed someone and you're acting so chipper about it, don't you feel any remorse at all?' Joshua questioned angrily.

At this, the smile disappeared from Drake's face, and was replaced by his more usual neutral, blank expression; he ground his teeth and leaned in close to Joshua until they could feel each other's breath on each other's face.

'So you apparently think I enjoy killing, and I enjoy doing dirty business like this? Let me set the record straight with you, I _do not _enjoy doing this, if possible I'd rather do no killing at all, if I had the time to fully plan out a proper course of action maybe I wouldn't need to, but as things stand I did not, so either come up with a better plan next time or shut your damn trap and do as you're told.' He hissed out while glaring.

Joshua remained as steely faced as he could under Drake's unnerving gaze, but he backed down nonetheless. Drake himself stepped back and turned away from Joshua, and then he turned to face the others.

'Seriously people, you didn't have a plan than, and you don't have a plan now, I'm just working with what I have now, I usually leave the thinking-far-ahead to one of my associates, but I don't really plan that far ahead.' He paused.

'So just work with me please?' He almost begged out the last part.

He then donned the mercenary's outfit and went away.

He came back late that night, and tossed off his outfit.

'Well?' Krory asked hopefully.

'There's an antechamber somewhere around here, we need to look for that somehow.' Drake explained.

'That's it?' One of the finders asked, clearly annoyed.

'And Miranda's doing fine apparently, anyhow…' Drake ignored the finder.

'So what's the plan now?' Krory asked.

'Tomorrow night, we'll go looking, now get some rest, I assure you this is almost over.' Drake chose a corner of the tent and lay down to sleep.

Somehow, his words were hardly reassuring to the others.

The next night, after an entire day of hard labor all over again, in the middle of the night, Krory was awakened by Drake.

'C'mon, wake it shake it, let's go.' Drake shook him awake, Krory woke up with an achingly dry and sore throat, he gulped down some water and felt better fairly quickly; his entire body felt like it was on fire from the last few days.

'Ow! My body hurts!' He groaned in pain.

'Don't worry too much, when your heart starts pumping a little faster it will all vanish mysteriously and miraculously.' Drake let his voice lower at the last part as though he was projecting a wondrous scene, 'Now let's go, move it!' His normal voice returned and he hissed as loudly as he dared.

The duo made their way slowly through the camp, their only light being the half-moon hanging in the sky.

'Um, Drake?' Krory called quietly.

'Hm?' Drake answered without stopping.

'Do you know where we're going?'

'Sorta.'

'Sorta?'

'Sorta.' Drake affirmed.

They walked on for several minutes until they came to a set of ruins, wherein Drake stopped and looked around.

'Should be around here.' He said.

'Are you sure?' Krory asked, he was still somewhat in a daze after being woken.

'Am I sure? No Krory, I am not _sure, _memory is as fallible as human thought itself.' Drake turned to fix Krory with his gaze.

Tired and worn out, Krory was not in a mood to complain, he found himself simply nodding his head after Drake spoke.

They headed down an opening in one of the crumbling structures, and soon found a dead end.

'It's a dead end.' Krory remarked.

'Indeed, memory tells me otherwise though, there should be something behind one of the stones.' So saying, he began to feel each of the stones that made up the wall, eventually coming upon a specific stone just to the left of the door at about chest height; it was oddly shaped compared to the rest of the wall, although it fit in perfectly with the rest of the stones, so it was mostly unnoticeable.

'Stand back a bit please.' Drake said and reared back his left arm, clenching his fist tightly; he drove it straight at the stone.

The stone gave a sharp crack noise and broke, Drake fished out the pieces and stared through the spot, and then he reached in and grabbed something and pulled hard.

Krory heard a grinding noise before silence, '…is that it?' He asked.

'I guess.' Drake replied, he walked over to the wall and put his hand on it, he gave it a light push…

And the promptly gave way and fell down, the soft sand muffling any noise it could have made, behind it was a deep, dark rectangular corridor that seemed to lead gently downwards.

'Good thing I brought this along.' Drake brought a lamp out of his coat and lit it with a matchstick he produced from another side of his coat, 'Well? What're we waiting for?' He raised his eyebrows at Krory, he lit the torch with a match and walked in, Krory followed close behind, still quite tired and sore.

'Hang on, let's cover our tracks a little.' Drake stopped and began lifting the fallen blocks back into place, when he was done, they continued on.

The walls of the tunnel were lined with the same heavy stone of the entrance, a little ways down the tunnel they came to another dead end, this one looked completely stone dead stiff, with absolutely no hint of any opening or anything that could be used.

'Ah, looks like we can't go any further.' Krory breathed quickly as he felt his heart race, he was trying to keep his eyes of two skeletons placed within alcoves of the tunnel at the sides, their grinning, empty gazes in the light of the lamp were almost terrifying to behold. Drake for his part ignored him, placed the lamp on the ground and felt around the wall for something to use until he came up to the skeleton on the right. He picked up the lamp and held it to see the interior of the alcove, noticing a small opening at the back, he look over at Krory, who by now was very wide awake, his arms were drawn around him, whether due to fright or cold Drake could not tell.

'Krory get over here for a moment.' Drake gestured, when he came over, Drake grabbed the skeleton and dumped it on him.

'Put this somewhere else.' He said nonchalantly.

Disgusted by the skeleton, Krory flung it aside quickly and rubbed himself all over as if the skeleton had some cold touch to it.

Drake hung up the lamp to shine right into the hole, noting an extension within the hole; he reached in as far as he could and grabbed the extension and gave it a hard pull. There was a loud "Clank", and then a series of sharp clicks followed by a deep rumbling noise, the wall in front split in two moving to either side to reveal a narrow stairway led down to a circular opening, Krory was so astonished he fell backwards and into the other alcove opposite, colliding with the other skeleton

'Ow!' Krory gasped and felt a sharp pain at his wrist and was shocked to see a rather large scorpion hanging from his wrist; he quickly shook it off, just in time for several to climb out of the wall and onto his arms and legs.

'GAH!' Krory screamed and leapt away from the wall, all the time brushing himself and shaking about frantically, when he was done, he found himself staring at a bemused Drake.

'Would you mind dancing some other time when we're not trying to do something really important?' Drake tried hard not to laugh.

'That thing just stung me!' Krory gestured wildly at the floor, when Drake turned the lamps shutters down though; the scorpions had already scampered off.

'What did it look like?' Drake inquired with a raised eyebrow.

'It had a long tail, eight legs and pincers.'

'So, it was a scorpion.'

'That's a scorpion?'

'…Yes?'

'It just stung me! Am I going to die?'

'How big was it?'

'It was huge! As big as my hand!'

Drake turned the lamp shutters to shine right on Krory's face, Krory could see Drake squinting at him in the dark for a moment before he said, 'right, whatever, moving on.'

'What? Am I going to die?' Krory panicked.

'Look, rule of thumb around these parts, when it comes to scorpions, the bigger the safer, small one stings you? Well…'

'Well?'

Drake patted Krorys head rather condescendingly, 'have fun.' He smiled that unearthly smile of his before turning and walking through the opening.

Krory followed him, they entered a much taller and wider passageway, and good enough for at least two people to walk side by side, the walls were now much smoother, although it still had the occasional cobweb along its sides they continued along it. They soon encountered some steps leading down, both went down and were surprised to find their way blocked again. It was a fairly strange block as the floor at the opening seemed to slant upwards and ended at the ceiling.

'Another dead end?' Krory remarked, Drake paid him no mind and simply ducked as he walked across the slant. Suddenly, it began to shift; the side which Krory was on began to rise up while the part where Drake was began to lower.

'Stay there!' Drake called out as Krory stepped forward, he stopped in his tracks and tried to look over the rapidly rising floor as Drake disappeared over the other side. Drake found that the floor lowered into another opening, smiling as he crossed back over and lowered the floor to see a confused Krory.

'C'mon, it's just on the other side.' Drake said.

After a little more walking, they exited the tunnels and found themselves in a cavernous area; the lamp Drake carried could barely pierce the sheer blackness surrounding them.

'Stay close.' Drake turned to Krory, they moved forward a few steps until Drake bumped into something in front of him, it was a cylindrical stone pedestal with a dark substance in it. Drake cautiously touched it with his left claw and brought it up to his face and smelled it.

'What is it?' Krory inquired.

'Oil.' Drake stated, 'Where's it coming from though?' He wondered out loud, he was surprised when something seemed to drop out of the corner of his eye; he turned to look, but found himself looking into the inky darkness again, and then it happened again. Drake stared at the pool of the substance and saw a drop fall into it from above.

'Uh Drake? I really don't like it here.' Krory wrapped his arms around himself.

'Patience, good things come to those who wait.' Drake said without turning to look, he set down the lamp, took out a matchstick, lit it and tossed it into the pool of oil. The fire started immediately and raced away from Drake along a small path, it then split into two and raced away from each other, the two flames split into more flames, all of these slowly lit up the area in the cavern, until the flames rejoined at the opposite end.

By now the whole room was clearly lit up, it was a fairly open and empty room with walls lined with stone, save for a pyramid shaped pedestal in the center, on top of it rested a large, round, dark brown colored sphere. Both men walked up to it.

'Do you think that's…?' Krory trailed off.

'Probably.' Drake muttered, both continued staring at it in silence.

'So why don't you just take it?' Krory asked after a while.

'You take it then.' Drake replied. Krory wondered what Drake was trying to tell him, nevertheless, Krory reached out and grabbed a hold of it, and was surprised to find that it was quite heavy and hard to move.

Krory grunted and swore uncharacteristically, he grabbed it with both hands, and with a mighty push, dislodged it from its place, causing it to land on the ground with a heavy "thud".

Immediately, the entire pedestal rose up with a loud "clunk" once the weight was removed.

'Ah, well I was quite afraid of that.' Drake remarked glumly, as he said that, there were more dull thuds and sharp clicks, and then the entire room began to reverberate and shake, Drake quickly moved over to the sphere and picked it up.

'Well now…this sucks.' Drake said sullenly as he looked at the shaking ceiling with sand dropping through it.

'w-what's happening?' Krory inquired shakily.

'It looks like a collapse, probably by a mechanism that was put in place all those years ago to ensure that grave robbers were buried with their own treasure.' Drake noted, as he stared upwards, before looking at Krory.

Out of the blue, a loud sound like a half-screech, half-roar erupted through the cavern. Out of nowhere, a massive and long, worm shaped creature exploded through the opposite end of the cavern, it roared horribly, it had a grinding, gnashing mouth full of teeth with a set of mandibles surrounding the outside.

'Now that was unexpected.' Drake remarked in surprise, Krory could only stare with his jaw hanging loosely from his head.

'Methinks that this is our cue to leave, RUN!' Drake screamed the last part and took off down the direction that they came from, Krory following in close pursuit. The worm reared up until it reached the ceiling, and then struck forward, Krory and Drake barely exited the room in time as it came up against the hole they exited through.

'What the hell is that thing?!' Krory cried in terror.

'I don't know! And I don't want to find out!' Drake shouted back as they ran up flights of stairs until they came to the balancing beam, it was painstaking waiting for it to lower to the exit as the entire area shook, just as they got off and exited, the area behind exploded and the worm stretched its monstrous body to grab them.

Krory barely avoided the clanking mandibles as they ran up another flight and exited the door with the two skeletons, they continued running for dear life as the worm closed on them, destroying the tunnel as it went.

'I can see the exit!' Drake hollered, neither of the two really cared that the stone wall they put back into place was blocking their way, Drake ran faster and tackled the block shoulder first, without missing a beat he scrambled to his feet just as Krory ran by and got away from the entrance just in time for the worm to bow its way through, with a horrible screeching roar is reared up, towering far above Drake and Krory.

The noise woke up everyone at the dig site; there were many cries of terror and fear, as workers and guards fled at the sight of the beast, it paid them little mind though, its single minded focus on the two intruders taking over any possible thoughts it might have had.

Drake seized Krory roughly, 'activate your innocence, I know it increases your attributes significantly, get to the camp, tell them to pack up and run for the river, if it's an oversized worm then I don't think it will go to the water, now move it!' He barked out.

'What about you?' Krory asked

'I'll distract…where did it go?' Drake found himself staring into the empty desert, both men were completely confused, but the answer made itself known fairly quickly.

The sand right underneath them began to rise, Drake caught on first, he grabbed Krory and shoved him away as hard as he could before jumping to the side just as the worm burst out from the sand right beneath them, Drake spun on a heel and faced it.

'You were looking for this?' Drake taunted as he held the orb in front of him, the worm screeched in answer and dove at him, Drake dashed to the side to dodge, and the worm crashed into, and dug straight through the sand

'I need my weapons…' He hissed to himself, he went at a full sprint to the central camp a short distance away, the worm came close on his heels, it did not bother to dig deep anymore and chased him just below the surface, causing a visibly large mound to chase after Drake. Drake reached the camp, and barely saw the chaos that reined within, he continued running, dismissing the screams his ears echoed with, and shortly reached the tent he had been in on the first day.

And ran right into a very confused Miranda.

'Dr-Drake? Wha-What's happening? Why's everyone-' Drake cut her stammer off.

'There's something after me! Where's my sword?' He grabbed her roughly and shouted.

Miranda forced out a reply despite her complete confusion and fear, 'It-it's over there!' She pointed at Annihilator; the sword leaned gently against one side of the tent.

'Great job!' to Miranda's complete surprise, Drake grabbed her bridal style and flung her through the opposite side of the tent, and then he ran and did a dive-roll to dodge the worm as it erupted, as he exited the roll, he seized Annihilator, and then swung around to slice off two mandibles as the worm approached.

The monster screeched horribly and reared up, pulling the tent away and towered over Drake. The mercenary guards were responding by this time, firing their rifles and pistols, their shots bounced off the hardened shell of the worm, which dove on one of them and swallowed him in a gulp.

'Drake, wha-what is that thing?!' Miranda was almost frozen with terror.

'No idea, just get to the river! Krory and the rest are down there.' Drake stated firmly, when she stood still for a moment, he yelled, 'Now Miranda!' That loud yell finally got her scrambling, Drake then turned to the worm, which seemed to have finished the mercenaries off, and was now looking straight at him silently.

'What're you waiting for?' Drake called, 'Come and get me.' He smirked at the last part as he held Annihilator at the ready. The worm responded appropriately by diving at him again, this time however, instead of diving directly on Drake, it came at an angle so that when Drake backed off, it simply adjusted slightly and continued charging. Drake used his sword like a pole to vault over the worm's strike and onto its head; he slammed his blade through the armour of the worm and pressed it in as deep as he could.

The worm screeched in pain and tossed its head from side to side, Drake grabbed onto Annihilator's grip and held on for dear life with closed eyes, feeling his body get pulled hard in one direction, and then the force would reverse and pull in the other direction. Drake was surprised when the force began to pull upwards and realised that the worm was going underground. Drake opened his eyes and began running in the opposite direction while still holding onto Annihilator, this split open most of the armour on the front portion of the worm as it dove underground, and Drake leapt off just as the last of it disappeared.

'_At least that took care part of his armour.' _Drake breathed a slight sigh of relief. There would be no rest though, another rumble sounded beneath Drake's feet, this time though, he remained still.

'C'mon, c'mon you bastard…' Drake hissed in anticipation.

The worm rose up through the sand right underneath him, Drake did a quick spin and cut the remaining two mandibles away, and then did a split at the opening of the mouth to prevent himself from falling into the worm's mouth. The worm continued rising, all of its teeth grating and clanking together, it snapped its head, trying to shake Drake off. Drake simply flipped forward, and as he fell, he swung his sword downwards, cutting the worm in half easily, Drake landed easily as the two halves separated and crashed onto the desert floor.

'Well, that's taken care of that.' Drake sheathed Annihilator on his back and walked away, as he did so however, he heard a weak screech and a roar; he turned and was surprised to see the gigantic worm approaching him. It was still very much alive, and was still trying to get at Drake, who was bemused by its attempts given that it was now in half.

'I should've known, worms don't die just because they got cut in two.' He rolled his eyes as the worm struggled.

'Better end this quick then…' He grunted, he sucked in a lungful of air, and then sprinted towards the worm at full speed, he vaulted again on top of the thrashing worm using annihilator again, he jammed it into the worm and then ran at full speed along the length of the worm while dragging the sword behind him, cutting the worm apart vertically.

He jumped of at the end and landed softly on the sand, he sheathed his sword and dusted of his hands, 'well that seems to be taken care of.' He sighed in relief and walked away, at a short distance he paused and turned around, half expecting the worm to get up. It did not though, and lay stone dead stiff on the sand, Drake took the heavy orb out of his coat and looked at it for a moment, he gripped it hard in his claw hand and cracked it, followed briefly by it falling to pieces, revealing a glowing green sphere that crackled in his grip. He quickly shifted hands and put it back into his coat before heading for the river.

The original boat that the three aristocrats had used had been found, although it was quite certain that not everyone could fit on it, and all of the labourers were clamouring for their pay, which fairly bemused Drake as he watched it unfold, they seemed quite interested in lynching the aristocrats.

'Hey Drake?' Krory tried to get Drake's attention.

'Hm?' Drake responded without looking up.

'What would you have done if the scorpion had been a small one?' Krory asked.

Drake wondered at that, he had had no real back up plan in the event someone had gotten into serious hurt, he remained silent and hoped Krory would forget about it.

'Drake?' Krory pressed.

'Ah…' Drake scratched his head, 'hand you back to the camp, there was nothing I could have done for you if the scorpion had been one of the really poisonous ones.'

'_Well at least he seems to be honest about it.' _Krory thought and left it at that.

**The longest chapter yet, well in any case this is the third last chapter.**


End file.
